Halloween season is here, and that probably means your students have begun thinking about their Halloween costumes for this year. Will it be a scary witch, a magical wizard or maybe your favourite movie character? As a fun Halloween classroom activity, why not get your students together and help them make their own costumes with bits and pieces they can find at home? It’s easy to head to the shops and buy a costume but there are many advantages to making your Halloween costumes from scratch!
Firstly, by making homemade costumes, your students’ parents can save themselves some money. It’s easy to incorporate everyday clothing items from home and transform them into something ghoulish or mystical. Secondly, homemade costumes can easily be made extra comfortable and warm to keep your students wrapped up when they’re out and about. Lastly, it’s more than likely your students will stand out in a one-of-a-kind costume that will certainly wow their family and friends!
With Halloween fast approaching, it’s time to get organised and get some fun and spooky costumes made for an evening of trick-or-treating and exciting games! Here are our 6 top tips to help you and your students DIY your Halloween costumes.
#1 Start your Halloween costumes early
It may sound obvious, but remember to start early when attempting to make a homemade costume. Why you might ask? Making a DIY costume sometimes requires having to purchase hard-to-find clothing items, props or materials. It’s not guaranteed that your local shopping centre will have all the supplies you need. To be prepared, make a plan and begin on time to ensure you or your students’ parents can do an online supply delivery if needs be!
#2 Try a new take on an original Halloween costume
There are many costume ideas that have been done time and time again over the years so why don’t you encourage your students to attempt to create a well-known costume but with a new and exciting twist? The children in your class will be sure to stand out for their originality! Get your students to think of a character they would like to base their costume on and then, brainstorm a not-so-typical way they might see that character. For example, if a child is a huge Harry Potter fan, instead of dressing them as Harry, Ron or Hermione in their traditional Gryffindor robes, consider dressing them in the outfits they wore to the Yule Ball, or if a student would like to go as The Little Mermaid, why not be original and dress them in her gown from when she gets married to the prince instead of her traditional purple shell top and green tail.
#3 Repurpose props from past costumes
Do your students still have any old Halloween costumes’ props, special clothing items, wigs, etc.? These can help make creating their DIY costume this year a breeze! Get creative and think about using these things in a new outfit. For instance, if they have fairy wings lying around, they can use them to transform into a magical butterfly. Instruct them to go through their cupboards and attics at home when they have some spare time to see what they can find and use their imagination to come up with something new and exciting!
#4 Get thrifty
Creating a DIY Halloween costume doesn’t have to break the bank. Making your own costume is actually an excellent way to cut costs. Encourage your students’ parents to try to be thrifty if they need to buy any additional items for their child’s costume. They can visit a charity shop for old finds that can be repurposed such as an old white dress that can be transformed into a zombie bride, or they could find something around the house such as old curtains or a tablecloth, and then make something new out of it.
#5 Purchase things you can use again and again
Here is yet another technique that can help your student’s parents to save some money. Try to sit down with your class and properly plan out their costumes so that when they go home, their parents only need to purchase things that can be reused time and time again. For instance, if a student wants to become a scarecrow this Halloween, their parents could purchase a plain plaid shirt that will fit nicely into their everyday wardrobe or if they want to transform into a scary witch, they may only need to buy a cosy plain black dress that when paired with tights and boots, it turns into a fabulous winter outfit!
#6 Know when to outsource
Even though creating a Halloween costume from scratch might be a lot of fun and a memorable experience for you and your class, doing it all by hand can get tiresome quickly. In addition, sometimes when we attempt to create something from scratch to save money, the materials turn out to be more expensive than the final product. For this reason, it’s important to remember that outsourcing materials can be a huge help. For students considering dressing up as a cat, for example, it’s a better idea to buy an inexpensive set of ears and a tail than to create these elements of the costume yourself.
We hope our DIY costume-making tips have helped you and your class this Halloween season. If you’re in the mood for another fun Halloween activity, why not keep the creativity flowing and get the kids together to write some scary Halloween stories?
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