MEET THE WILD SIDE OF THE HALLOWEEN SEASON!
Hosted by wildlife educator and artist Christine Elder
October 2-30th, 2026
🦉A 5-Day Spooky Wildlife Drawing Challenge for Middle Schoolers and their grown-ups to enjoy together✏️
Create together. Discover together. Get a little spooky together.
This Halloween, let’s skip the usual ghosts and monsters and discover some of the real creatures that make our world wonderfully wild. 🐍
For 5 days in October, kids will learn to draw fascinating animals like tarantulas, vultures, bats, and other misunderstood wildlife—while discovering the surprising ways these animals help our ecosystems thrive.
They’ll draw. They’ll discover. They’ll get a little spooky. And they’ll start thinking like wildlife conservationists. And you can learn right along side them in our safe, welcoming space.
🦂 Join the Spooky Wildlife Drawing Challenge🐭
What if “scary” animals became their favorites?
🕷️ Tarantulas. Vultures. Bats. Moths. Snakes.🐍
These are animals that often get a bad reputation.
But look a little closer, and you’ll discover extraordinary creatures with incredible adaptations—and important jobs to do in the natural world.
That’s what this challenge is all about.
Each day, kids will explore a different piece of the wild world through realistic animal drawing + fascinating wildlife science + conservation stories.
The goal isn’t to turn every kid into an artist.
It’s to help them look closer.
Because when kids become curious about an animal, they become more likely to care about it.
And when they care about wildlife, they can become the people who help protect it.
Here’s how the challenge works
🕷️ 5 days. 5 fascinating animals. 5 opportunities to see wildlife differently.
Each day, kids will watch a short demonstration where I’ll guide them step-by-step in drawing a fairly realistic animal.
While we’re drawing, we’ll also discover what’s happening beyond the page:
How does this animal survive?
What role does it play in its ecosystem?
What threats does it face?
And what can people do to help?
We’ll talk about real conservation topics—including things like habitat loss and climate change—in an age-appropriate way that connects those big issues directly to the animals we’re drawing.
So they’re not just learning about conservation.
They’re learning to notice it in the world around them.
ABOUT YOUR LEADER
Hi, I’m Christine Elder and I’ve been teaching kids and families about the natural world for decades. I’m passionate about inspiring wildlife and habitat conservation using the fun and engaging activity of drawing! You may know me from the pandemic era when I began leading daily drawing sessions for families around the world. Since then I’ve created courses, a membership, and traveled extensively to share my passion for nature, including volunteering in Panama for 3 months. Join me, won’t you on this exciting Spooky Wildlife Sketching Challenge!
What kids will experience
🎨 DRAW
Learn how to observe an animal and break its body down into shapes, textures, proportions, and details.
The demonstrations are designed to help middle schoolers create drawings that look surprisingly realistic—even if they don’t consider themselves “artists.”
🔎 DISCOVER
Every animal has a story.🦨🦍🐁🐀🦉🦇🕸🕷🦂🐭🐾🐾🐊🐊🐾🐝🐙🌲🐞
Kids will learn weird, wonderful, and surprising facts about the animals they’re drawing and discover what makes each one uniquely adapted to its environment.
🌎 CONNECT
We’ll connect the animals to the bigger picture of conservation.
Kids will discover how habitat loss, climate change, human activity, and other environmental changes can affect wildlife.
❤️ CARE
Most importantly, they’ll have the opportunity to see these animals differently.
A vulture isn’t just “gross.”
A tarantula isn’t just “scary.”
A bat isn’t just something from a Halloween movie.
They’re wildlife. They’re fascinating. And they matter.
Why spooky wildlife?
Halloween is the perfect time to look beyond the creatures we normally associate with the holiday.
The animals that frighten or disgust us are often some of the most fascinating creatures on Earth.
And that makes them a powerful starting point for conservation education.
When a child goes from:
“Ewww!”
to:
“Wait…that’s actually AMAZING.”
something important has happened.
Curiosity has replaced fear.
And curiosity is where conservation can begin.
What they’ll learn
Over the course of the challenge, kids will practice:
- Observational drawing
- Realistic animal illustration
- Using shapes and proportions to build an animal
- Capturing texture and detail
- Looking closely at animal adaptations
- Understanding the role animals play in ecosystems
- Thinking about habitat loss and other conservation challenges
- Connecting individual animals to larger environmental issues
- Seeing “scary” or misunderstood wildlife from a new perspective
But perhaps the most important thing they’ll practice is this:
Asking better questions about the natural world.
Why does this animal look like that?
Why does it behave that way?
What happens if its habitat disappears?
Why should we care?
Those questions are the beginning of scientific thinking—and conservation.
A creative challenge with a bigger purpose
This isn’t about creating perfect drawings.
It’s about giving kids a reason to slow down and look closely at the living world.
Art gives them a way in.
Wildlife gives them something worth noticing.
Conservation gives that curiosity a purpose.
My hope is that when the challenge is over, kids won’t just have five new drawings.
They’ll have five new reasons to care about wildlife.
And maybe one of them will decide someday that they want to be the scientist, artist, educator, park ranger, biologist, or conservationist who helps protect it.
Perfect for…
🏫 Educators
Bring a creative, science-connected activity into your classroom, after-school program, environmental club, or homeschool curriculum.
👨👩👧 Parents
Give your middle schooler a fun Halloween-season activity that combines creativity, science, and the natural world.
🧑🎨 Curious Kids
Especially kids who love animals, drawing, science, nature, creepy-crawlies—or simply want to try something different this Halloween.
No drawing experience necessary; just a curiosity about the world!
What you’ll need
Just a few simple supplies:
✏️ Sketching pencils
📄 Paper or a sketchbook
🖍️ Optional colored pencils, markers, or other favorite art supplies
💻 A device for watching the demonstration videos
That’s it.
The Spooky Wildlife Drawing Challenge
5 Days in October
- 5 fascinating animals
- 5 drawing demonstrations
- 5 conservation stories
One big invitation:
Look closer. Get curious. Protect what you discover.
A note for parents & educators
Kids don’t have to become professional artists—or future wildlife biologists—to benefit from this experience.
The purpose of the challenge is to create a connection between creativity and the natural world.
By combining drawing with wildlife science and conservation stories, we’re giving kids an opportunity to experience environmental education in a way that feels engaging, approachable, and fun.
Because conservation isn’t just about knowing that wildlife needs our help.
It’s about caring enough to want to help.
And sometimes, caring begins with a pencil, a piece of paper, and a creature you never thought you’d want to draw.
Let’s get spooky. Let’s get curious. Let’s get wild.
You can watch a sample spooky wildlife drawing class on spooky deep-sea anglerfish here. 🐟
🦨🦍🐁🐀🦉🦇🕸🕷🦂🐭🐾🐾🐊🐊🐾🐝🐙🌲🐞