Little Pumpkins

We celebrate Halloween  happily the whole month of October. I do so enjoy the orange and black color combination as well as a good plastic skeleton. We make these colorful, layered, sparkly pumpkins in our Toddler Class for ages 2 and 3 but you could do this project with older kids and with larger sized pumpkins if you like.  This is a great project to do with a group or just you and your child together.

Materials Needed
pumpkins
oil pastels
tempera paint-colors of your choice
white glue
glitter - colors of your choice
chop sticks
a square of cardboard or newspaper down below the pumpkin

I set up each pumpkin on a small piece of cardboard. You could use a scrap piece of paper or if you are doing this with a larger group, you might want to cover the tables with butcher paper or news paper.

I give each child a bowl of oil pastels. Drawing on a 3 dimensional surface is a different experience the drawing on a flat piece of paper.  We talk about each color they choose to use and about the types of marks they make using the oil pastel. This will be the first layer on the pumpkin.

When finished exploring the oil pastels I offer them paint. They choose a color of paint but instead of a paint brush, I offer them a chop stick. They can drip it on, splatter it on or rub it with the chop stick. This allows for smaller mark making and splattering.

And some like to pour the paint on.

Once they have chosen all their colors to use and are finished exploring the paint, I give them some white glue to paint onto their pumpkin stem. It's the time for glitter, pinching of glitter or pouring of glitter.

Looking at these little sparkly gems puts a smile on my face. My son made one and it sits as a center piece on my dining room table. I feel quite lucky.