Halloween is celebrated on the 31st of October. In the English-speaking world, this usually means pumpkins, candy, trick-or-treating, and monsters galore! Many schools and kindergartens arrange Halloween activities for children around this time, and we wanted to share one of our favorite Halloween crafts for you to do with your learners.
Paper Pumpkins: Easy, Fun, and Educational
The paper pumpkins may be a simple craft, but don't let the simplicity fool you! Depending on the age of the children, there are many skills that they can practice with this activity. Older children can practice tracing with a pen and using scissors to cut the needed shapes out of craft paper. This develops their fine motor skills and pencil grip, which are important skills in general but especially for learning to write later on.
Younger children may need your help with cutting out the shapes, or you may opt for doing the cutting yourself before the activity to save time. If you don't want children to use scissors, you can ask them to rip the shapes out instead. This will give them a different form of fine motor practice, and they get to experience working with craft paper in a different way than they probably are used to.
Craft activities let children enjoy the process of creating something and flex their creative expression skills. You can use the template below for creating the parts of the pumpkin, but for maximum creativity, let the children design their pumpkins and their facial expressions themselves! Be prepared for some funky pumpkins with crazy faces, though.
While you work, you can talk about the pumpkin's eyes and mouth, and some children may want to add a nose or even some hair to their pumpkin. When all the pumpkins are ready, you can discuss how the pumpkins are feeling. Which ones are happy? Sad? Angry? Scared? What happened that made them feel that way? When was the last time you felt that way? This way you can practice emotional skills and imagination while using vocabulary related to the parts of the face and emotions. That's quite good for such a simple activity, don't you think?
Instructions for the Paper Pumpkins
For this craft activity, you will need:
- Orange and black craft paper
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Glue
- (Pumpkin templates - includes the pumpkin, the stalk, and 3 options for both the eyes and the mouth)
Sit around a table with the children. Give them the parts of the pumpkin if you have cut them out beforehand, otherwise give them orange and black craft paper and pencils. You can ask them to use the pumpkin piece templates to trace the shapes first with a pencil before cutting them out, or you can let them draw and cut the shapes in any way they want. Once everyone has their pumpkin pieces, ask them to glue the parts of the face onto their pumpkin. Make one (or more!) for yourself as well. Once you are done, you can put them on the window or the wall of your classroom to showcase your masterpieces.
Your Turn!
If you make paper pumpkins with your learners, we'd love to see them! Share them on social media with the hashtags #moominls and #moominLShalloween so we can admire the work of your learners.
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