We crafted up some jack-o-lanterns the other day.  They were really easy to make, and a lot of fun.  The inspiration came from Deep Space Sparkle.

I used a black marker to draw a large pumpkin shape on some white cardboard, and set out some orange paint.  See the paint in the baggie?   Put your paint in a sandwich bag and there’s no messy jar to wash.  Any leftover paint gets zipped up and kept for next time!  I borrowed that brilliant idea from Exploring the Outdoor Classroom (pop over to see more super tips for organizing your play space).

While the Hooligans were painting, I talked about trying to stay inside the lines, which can be challenging for young ones.  They did a great job.  I also encouraged them to try to cover all the white bits as the young ones tend to keep globbing the paint onto the center of their work.  I ended up cutting the pumpkins out, so painting inside the lines really wasn’t important, but it was a good exercise anyway.

While the paint dried, we worked on the faces.  I feel it’s important to let them do as much as possible on their own, but I had the feeling that asking them to cut out eyes, noses, and mouths, was a bit much to expect from them, so I asked them to draw the shapes on black paper with a light coloured crayon, and I cut them out, following their lines.  

Then I cut strips of white paper for them, and they used the scissors to chop those strips up into teeth.

Glue it all together, and…..Ta-da….

Aren’t they cute?!!