Are you still looking for a fun and easy, age appropriate, no-carve pumpkin decorating idea that will keep your toddler busy for hours? Look no further! Ever since seeing Meri Cherry’s Pumpkin Party, decorating pumpkins with tinker trays has become a yearly tradition – we seriously love these pumpkins sooo much!
Before decorating pumpkins you can start with this fun nursery rhyme:
“Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate (hold up five fingers).
The first one said, “Oh my, it’s getting late!” (hands on your cheek).
The second one said, “There’s a chill in the air.” (wrap arms around you).
The third one said, “But we don’t care.” (swing pointer finger).
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.” (run in place).
The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!” (hands up in the air).
Ooooooooo went the wind (make a “whooo” sound) and out went the lights (clap hands).
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight (roll hands around each other).”
Set-up:
For a full list of materials and step-by-step instructions head over to Meri Cherry. After learning our pumpkin nursery rhyme we wondered where our five little pumpkins might have rolled off to and found them waiting for us on the table set with all the desirable materials to decorate a pumpkin.
This is meant to be a child-led, open-ended, simple but engaging activity that stimulates your child’s imagination, offers the freedom to create, invent, and inspires to find new ways of doing things as well as building fine and gross motor skills.
Supply each child with a tray for their pumpkin and materials, safety instructions, scissors and glue. We also used group trays instead of individual tinker trays to pick our materials from:
Process:
Can you see the joy and concentration on the children’s faces? This was so much fun! A hammer, tissue papers and chalk markers made for nice additions to the materials.
Aren’t they absolutely adorable? I love how different each and every pumpkin turned out. The children gave them names as well which I have unfortunately long forgotten. Still, they are too good, I had to share!
Enjoy!
♥ Claudia.
