Ghost Craft to Work on Scissor Skills

Colleen Beck OTR/L
Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

This Halloween cutting craft is an old one that’s been on our site since October, 2018. We love this activity for so many reasons, and wanted to share it again. The ghost cutting activity that we did all those years ago supports development of hand and grip strength, bilateral coordination, eye hand coordination, and more. This is a Halloween occupational therapy activity you’ll want to add to your therapy plan this Fall!

Ghosts cut from white paper on a black background and paper ghosts on orange paper on the top. Words in the middle read "fine motor ghost craft"

We made these fine motor ghosts years ago, but still love to use them to work on fine motor and visual motor skills.

Halloween Cutting Craft

Looking for ideas to work on scissor skills? Do you need a quick craft idea to add to your therapy line up to address skills like scissor use, bilateral coordination, hand strength, or visual motor skills?

This Ghost Craft is a fun Halloween cutting craft idea that kids can do while boosting the skills they need for scissor skills and other fine motor skills. Use this ghost craft idea to work on occupational therapy activities and OT goal areas in a fun and festive way, perfect for Fall activities and ghost theme therapy ideas!

For more ways to build skills, try our other quick and fun ghost craft that will boost those fine motor skills. 

 

 
Use this ghost craft to work on scissor skills with kids, the perfect halloween craft for a ghost theme occupational therapy activity that boosts fine motor skills and scissor use including bilateral coordination and the visual motor skills needed for cutting with scissors.
This ghost cutting craft can be modified to meet the levels of various student skills.
 
 

Ghost Craft to Work on Scissor Skills

This scissor skills craft is an easy craft to set up and one that you can pull together in in no time, making it a nice craft for on-the-go school based OTs looking for a ghost themed craft that addresses OT goal areas.
 
Kiddos will love this ghost craft as it’s a cute craft idea that is motivating. In fact, kids won’t even realize they are working on skills like hand strength, separation of the sides of the hand, arch development, scissor use, or bilateral coordination. 
 
Here are more bilateral coordination activities that you can try.
 
Kids will love this ghost craft for a halloween craft that works on scissor skills in kids.

Kids love this ghost cutting craft because you can add different facial expressions.

 

Ghost Craft for Kids

To create this ghost craft and work on scissor skills as well as fine motor skills, you will need only a few materials (affiliate links are included below):
 
Kids can make this ghost craft to work on scissor skills and hand strength with a ghost theme this halloween, the fun ghost craft that helps kids cut with scissors.
 
First, it’s important to talk about where to start with know what a child can benefit from when it comes to paper type (construction paper, printer paper, cardstock, and other paper types all play important parts in addressing needs in scissor skills. Read about the various paper choices in addressing scissor skills in our scissor skills crash course. 
 
In that crash course, you’ll also find information related to line thickness when it comes to teaching kids to move through the stages of scissor skills. 
 
Use this ghost craft to work on scissor skills and other fine motor skills, perfect for a halloween craft or ghost theme in occupational therapy activities.

 

Steps to Make a Ghost Craft and Work on Scissor Skills

To make this ghost craft (and boost those scissor skills), simply draw a semi circle on the edge of a piece of paper. 
 
Ask kids to cut out out the ghost craft along the curved line. You can draw visual cues on the paper to cue kids on where to hold the paper as they turn the paper while cutting.
 
Next, draw or ask the child to draw circles for the mouth and two eyes. They can then use the hole punch to punch holes inside the circles of the eyes and mouth. 
 
This ghost craft works on scissor skills and fine motor skills needed for cutting with scissors, using a ghost theme for halloween craft ideas in occupational therapy activities.

 

Graded Scissor Skills Craft

 
There are several ways to grade this ghost craft to make the craft easier or more difficult depending on the child’s needs:
 
  • Use lighter or heavier paper grades. Some ideas are tissue paper, newspaper, wrapping paper, paper towels, or coffee filters to make the craft more difficult. Some ideas to make the ghost craft easier include cardstock, manilla folders, poster board, or thin cardboard.
  • Add more details to the ghost craft such as a bottom that the child needs to cut along a 90 degree angle to cut the bottom of the ghost. 
  • Add a wavy line to the bottom to require more details and scissor movement. 
  • Make larger or smaller ghosts.
Looking for more scissor skills crafts? Try these: 
 
 
 
Kids will love this fun ghost craft in occupational therapy activities this fall, use this ghost craft idea to work on scissor skills and other fine motor skills in occupational therapy activities.
 
 

 

Use scissors and a hole punch to work on the fine motor skills and scissor skills with this ghost craft.

 

 

Want more Halloween fine motor, visual motor, and fine motor activities? Grab our Halloween Therapy Kit!

Get your copy of the Halloween Therapy Kit here.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

1 thought on “Ghost Craft to Work on Scissor Skills”

  1. Pingback: Ghost Craft Sensory Exploration - The OT Toolbox

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Ghosts cut from white paper on a black background and paper ghosts on orange paper on the top. Words in the middle read "fine motor ghost craft"

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