Paper bat craft

Make a hanging paper bat craft to decorate for Halloween – or just because you love bats!

This printable template is based on a realistic bat and is designed to be suspended from the roof, or a branch (I picked a bare branch off the ground and placed it in a heavy jar filled with rocks for ours).

Get the template here

Halloween is the celebration of all things spooky, so it’s always puzzled me why bats are associated with it. Cute, furry mammals are not usually something I’d be scared of.

Possibly it’s because they come out when it’s dark (so do koalas). Or maybe it’s because they like to hang out in caves. Or it could be something to do with the story of Count Dracula and Vampire Bats (which do actually drink blood so they are kind of spooky!).

Here are a few interesting bat facts you can talk about with your kids while you make the paper bat craft…

Fascinating bat facts for kids

Bats are the only flying mammal in the world
There are over 1000 different types of bats worldwide
Baby bats are called pups, and most bats will only have one pup per year
Bats can live for over 20 years
Some bats eat insects, others eat fruit and there are three different species which feed solely on blood
Bats have fantastic hearing. They can even ‘see’ in complete darkness by using echolocation. This is the abitilty to pinpoint the exact location of things using sound
The biggest bat in the world is the giant golden crowned flying fox, which is found in the Phillipines. It has a wingspan of up to 1.7m or 5.5 feet. Thankfully this species of megabat is a herbivore who’s favourite food is figs!

How to make a paper bat

You will need:

The printable bat template
A4 paper – for best results use card stock
Hole punch
Hat elastic
Scissors

How to:

Print out the two pages you’ll need to make up your bat. Cut out the body, ears and two rectangles which will be used to make the wings.
Fold the wing rectangles in half along the fold line and glue together with your glue stick. It should now have a solid colour on the back and wing detail on the front. Cut out the wing shapes.
Score the fold lines on the body before folding it into shape (scoring creates an indent which makes them very easy to fold neatly).
Cut slits where the ears are to go and slot them into place. Glue the wings onto the body one at a time before punching holes over the marked dots. Tie string through the holes so that you can now hang your bat.