Where Play Meets Potential
If you love Halloween and the Autumn season, but dread carving a pumpkin, then this post will offer you 10 unique toddler pumpkin activities that don’t involve Jack-o-Lantern faces.
These unique toddler pumpkin activities come from years of teaching preschool and wanting to be festive while also bringing the Fall spirit alive. I have carved pumpkins with toddlers and, let me tell you, they usually lose interest right around the seeds and guts part.
Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring the insides of a pumpkin with children, but the whole carving an intricate design is best left for the adults.
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Get a little artsy and do some drip painting. If you can find a white pumpkin, that is the best, but any color will do.
First get small cups (we used plastic shot glasses) and fill them with a 50/50 mixture of paint and water. Make sure you have plenty of cups because they tend to pour the paint out quickly.
Then, put the pumpkin and cups into a large shallow plastic bin.
You can model pouring or you can let your toddler free to explore dumping.
A variation of this activity is to use squeeze bottles. These bottles are great for fine motor. If you put a tray under, you can catch the excess paint and reuse or save it.
Ok, so this one does involve some carving, but it will be worth it! And the good news is the actual carving is not intricate or complex.
Get a large pumpkin. Carve holes the size of different balls (we used ball pit balls). Then let your toddler find the right sized hole for the balls. If they are a younger toddler, they may just want to put the balls in the top hole and that is fun too.
This unique toddler pumpkin activity is fun and also works on spatial awareness and early math skills (shape and size discrimination).
What toddler doesn’t love stickers? A creative way to use a pumpkin is to allow your toddler to add stickers all over the pumpkin.
The pumpkin gives a new way to work with stickers that involves both gross and fine motor skills. The toddler is working on a 3 dimensional surface and, thus, requires more spatial awareness and strength.
Find some fun Halloween stickers to make it even more festive. You could also get facial feature stickers and make faces on the pumpkins.
What toddler doesn’t love stickers? A creative way to use a pumpkin is to allow your toddler to add stickers all over the pumpkin.
The pumpkin gives a new way to work with stickers that involves both gross and fine motor skills. The toddler is working on a 3 dimensional surface and, thus, requires more spatial awareness and strength.
Find some fun Halloween stickers to make it even more festive. You could also get facial feature stickers and make faces on the pumpkins.
Using dry erase markers on a pumpkin is a unique toddler pumpkin activity that keeps on giving. Your toddler can draw to their heart’s content and then erase and start all over again. I will warn you though after a few drawings, it is a little challenging to clean the marker off. White board cleaner is helpful.
You could also use regular washable markers and then have your child use a sponge or rag to clean it off.
In the classroom, we have done this activity with older children writing their names and sight words. It is a great way to practice all types of skills.
Instead of Mr. Potato Head, let’s make Mr. Pumpkin Head. A creative use for a pumpkin is to use Mr. Potato Head pieces to make faces on the pumpkin.
Simply make holes with a screwdriver and offer Mr. Potato Head pieces as an invitation to play.
My toddler loves Mr. Potato Head, so using the pieces on a pumpkin is an extension of this well-loved toy. She absolutely loved this idea!
There are so many benefits to this activity. Just to name a few:
You may want to combine this toddler pumpkin activity with the marker activity mentioned above. This is an especially great activity if it is still hot during the Autumn months (like it is here in Las Vegas).
Get some pumpkins and gourds (preferably with various colors and textures) and put them in a bin or sensory table with water and soap. Add some sponges or scrubbers and you have a pumpkin bath!
Toddlers love giving toys a bath. The sensory aspect is beneficial and also makes the pumpkins slippery, which gives those hand muscles an extra workout.
Sensory play has so many benefits (read more about that HERE) and often really engages toddlers for extended periods of time.
So, a unique toddler pumpkin activity is to add some pumpkins to a sensory bin. There are so many different sensory bases you could use with pumpkins, here are just a few:
Check out more Autumn-inspired Sensory Bins HERE.
The next unique toddler pumpkin activity is to create some Fall-inspired decor by collaging on a large pumpkin or a few small pumpkins.
Process art is a great way to get toddlers involved with self-expression, but it doesn’t always look great. Gluing onto a pumpkin will ensure that the gobs of glue they will most likely use will be put to good use.
To make it even more festive you can find some Fall themed scrapbook paper to use. If your toddler has begun using scissors you can involve them with cutting some strips of paper. If they are not yet proficient with scissor skills you can also involve them with tearing the paper.
You could vary this activity by doing paper mache instead of glue.
Here is another unique toddler pumpkin activity that involves multiple senses. Toddlers and frozen objects are always a fun time. I have learned from previous ice activities to always include some way to melt the ice or get to the object inside the ice.
The ice is only fun for so long before they just want the object inside. You could include warm water with droppers or scoops or you could include a hammer, which as you saw above is always a fun tool to incorporate with toddlers.
For this activity, I would recommend getting small pumpkins (unless you have a giant freezer to freeze a big pumpkin). You could add them to colored water or plain water. You could include other objects or keep it just pumpkins. Lots of variations to keep it fun and fresh.
I hope you have so much festive fun with these creative uses for a pumpkin. Let me know what you plan to try out next in the comments below.
If you are looking for some more Fall fun, check out these posts:
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