Today’s Monday Fun Day Activity is Pumpkin Decorating and Halloween Crafts. We began our pumpkin decorating with a Mr. Potato Head kit for a pumpkin – A Mr. Potato Head Pirate. I picked this kit up at Target for six bucks. This kit is great for the little ones because the pieces are not too small and although mom may need to help push them into the pumpkin, the kids will have fun playing with the parts before and after completion. My son loved this.
We also made a jack-o-lantern today. It had been a few years since I made a jack-o-lantern and was excited to get into it again! Typically I cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds, however this year I decided to cut the hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. You see, depending on how long you have the pumpkin sitting out, it can begin to rot and the opening at the top of the pumpkin starts to look real funky. Cutting the hole in the bottom disguises this a bit. I received a tip of putting Vaseline along the cut edges of the pumpkin to help preserve it a little longer. We shall see how this works. When cutting the hole in the bottom you should use a light rather than candle to illuminate your jack-o-lantern.
The baby is too young to participate in cutting the pumpkin, but I let him feel the pumpkin seeds and goo on the inside of the pumpkin. This he enjoyed! He also played with the pieces that we popped out of the pumpkin while cutting it.
I also wanted to make a special ‘mama’ jack-o-lantern. I purchased a white pumpkin for this and created a design around the pumpkin to illuminate. We placed lights inside the pumpkin and we are ready for dark!
In addition to the pumpkins we crafted other Halloween goodies! There are so many crafts that you can make for the holiday. I chose a couple that are fairly tot friendly.
Styrofoam Spider
For this project I took two Styrofoam balls (one larger and one small) and painted them black. I added pipe cleaners to the large ball for spider legs and glued little eyes on the small ball before combining the two balls to make the body and head of the spider. You may want to paint eyes on or leave them off all together if you are working with a young child. We then took our spider and placed him in our spider web that covers our dining room window. It added excitement to the decoration!
Jack-o-Lantern Jars
If you are like me you have a couple baby food jars sitting around. We took a couple of these and made them into jack-o-lanterns. To do this, fill the jar with something orange. This could be confetti, construction paper, fabric, or cheese puffs! Use your imagination. Glue little black cut outs to the outside of the jar for the face of the jack-o-lantern. You can use a pipe cleaner or construction paper to create the top of the pumpkin by attaching a stem to the top of the jar.
Hand Print Ghosts
This was a cute craft that I came across online. Take some black construction paper and have the child make a white handprint on the paper (so the fingers are facing down). The palm of the hand becomes the head of the ghost that you can then decorate by drawing on a face. Easy and fun!
Paper Jack-O-Lanterns
Cut out some orange pumpkin shapes and black face parts for a jack-o-lantern. Let your little one play around with placing the face parts on the pumpkin. Another easy fun activity!
I didn't get a chance to transfer pictures to my computer today so I will have to post pictures tomorrow.
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