Pumpkin Crafts for Kids

It’s been a while since I’ve done any pumpkin related content (though there’s been a lot in the past including crafts, STEM activities, sensory ideas and even pumpkin printables!) so let’s explore some more pumpkin craft ideas for kids.

Tearing paper is a great fine motor skill practice for little kids. Add in gluing, too, and this torn paper pumpkin from Little Ladoo is not only cute but building skills your little one needs. How great is that?

You can tear or cut the tissue paper you use to “paint” these mini pumpkins. Stay at Home Educator has this DIY, which is a cute alternative to painting pumpkins with a little less mess.

These easy glowing jack o’lanterns are a fun project for kids of all ages. Start with a clear plastic cup and you’ll have a bunch of glowing pumpkins in no time. Get the tutorial from Buggy and Buddy.

Make a couple of paper plates into a jack o’ lantern lit with an LED candle with this cute idea from Easy Peasy and Fun. You may already have the supplies you need for this one. Little kids can draw the face and have an adult cut it out for them.

I think kids of a variety of ages would also like this jack o’ lantern monoprint project from Kitchen Table Classroom. Monoprint sounds complicated but you just need paint and some kind of smooth, flat surface to work with and you’ll be printing pumpkins in no time!

A great one for the classroom that can be used as decoration is this goofy pumpkins art project from Mme Marissa. She shows the results from both kindergarten and a grade 2/3 classroom, so it’s great fun for everyone.

Crafters (and probably others) know that apples and pumpkins can look similar as creative motifs, and this project from In the Kids Kitchen takes that observation literally by using an apple to stamp a pumpkin shape. It’s so cute and easy, and if you cut the apples ahead even little kids can do it.

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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