Grab those toddlers and get them involved with the rest of your kids crafting this fall season. Here are some great craft ideas that will delight your toddlers as well as your other kids!
You'll need:
1 box of Spice Cake Mix
1/3 cup Oil (do not add 1/3 cup extra if box directions already have this)
1 smaller-size Canned Solid Pumpkin (approximately 8-10 oz. can)
1 pkg. Cupcake Papers
3 containers Frosting, 1 White, 1 Orange and 1 Dark Chocolate (or make your own)
1 container Halloween Sprinkles
1 bag multi-colored Gummy Worms
1 bag Raisins
Secure your little one into their highchair with the tray attached, hand them a mixing bowl and spoon, allowing them to mix the Spice Cake Mix, Oil and the can of Solid Pumpkin (instead of the water on the cake box directions). Do not add the eggs until you've taken the bowl from your child, you will mix the raw eggs yourself.
Prior to adding the eggs, trade your toddler the Cupcake Papers and a muffin baking tin. Instruct your toddler to put the paper liners into the muffin tins, while you add the eggs and finish mixing the batter. Fill the muffin tins and bake according to the package directions for cupcakes, or 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes (until golden or when a knife poke comes out clean). Allow to cool about ½ hour to prevent melting the frosting.
While waiting for the cupcakes to cook and cool, have the kids open up (or make your own) cupcake frosting. Have your little ones dip the cooled cupcakes into the icing, top first and they're ready to decorate with sprinkles, multi-color gummy worms and/or raisins. Suggest pumpkin faces, eyes, nose and mouth while asking your child to point out their own facial features.
This toddler cooking/decorating craft teaches your child science. By mixing liquids and solids, and baking the gooey batter with oven heat forcing a change in its chemical composition, the colors and decorations of fall, while reinforcing language and facial recognition.
You'll need:
1 medium to small Pumpkin (with a stem)
Sea Salt
Cut around the top of your Pumpkin (with stem) and set it aside to use in the next craft (read ahead to get ideas for cutting your pumpkin top off). Have your toddler hollow out the pumpkin, pulling out the squishy strings and seeds to place into a bowl, while you and/or your older kids separate out the seeds. Set the pumpkin aside for the last project.
Rinse the seeds off with water, spread onto a flat cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea-salt. Bake in the oven on low (about 250 degrees) until golden and crisp ½ hour to 1 hour, or until the seeds are as crunchy as you'd like them, without burning. This is a choking hazard for children under three years old so instead have them snack on raisins during this project.
This craft teaches tactile experimentation with a substance most of us don't usually come in contact with, plus it feels Halloween squishy. Your toddler also gets to taste the insides of a nutritious raw pumpkin while cleaning it out.
You'll need:
Pumpkin Top (w/stem from above)
Several 8 ½" x 11" Cardstock Paper, or white Cardboard
1 Ink Pad, Non-toxic, Washable Orange Ink
Show your child how to dab the Pumpkin Top on the Orange Ink Pad and stamp pumpkins onto your Cardstock or Cardboard. Allow to dry and hang on the refrigerator! Pumpkin pictures for the holidays!
You could draw Jack-O-Lantern faces on them with marker pens, if you'd like. Put the pumpkin top back onto your hollowed-out pumpkin for the next craft.
This craft teaches recycled art using a live plant substance for the rubber stamp. It also helps with hand/eye coordination and is a lot of fun for your toddler.
1 jar Black Finger Paint
1 jar Red Finger Paint
1 jar Blue Finger Paint
1 package Sponge Brushes
1 package Sponge Triangles
2 Miniature Pumpkins (optional)
If you enjoy cutting out your pumpkins, go ahead carve it and keep a touch or tap-light in it instead of candle fire. I have however found a better way to engage little ones (as well as older children) with a safe decorated porch-pumpkin craft.
Using your hollowed-out pumpkin with inked-up stem-top back on top, help your toddler paint a Jack-O-Lantern face, multi-colored curly hair and anything else your child wants to paint onto your porch pumpkin. If your toddler has difficulty with a larger pumpkin let them try painting miniature pumpkins. Allow painted pumpkins to dry.
Your older kids can then take the painted porch pumpkin and glue on fall leaves for additional hair with a cool glue gun (or white craft glue). They could also add gourds for ears, hats, etc. Or even turn the pumpkin into a turkey by gluing multi-colored feathers behind in a fan-shape, with a gourd for the head and neck.
This porch-pumpkin craft teaches shapes, paints and colors applied to a round, bumpy object while your older kids learn problem-solving skills as they combine dimensional objects with nature art.
Here are four great fall pumpkin crafts combining science, art, recycling, nature and problem-solving lessons for all your kids. You'll give your toddlers a head-start into using the scientific process, and by engaging all five of your child's senses lessons are clearly remembered and enjoyed.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
You'll need:
1 box of Spice Cake Mix
1/3 cup Oil (do not add 1/3 cup extra if box directions already have this)
1 smaller-size Canned Solid Pumpkin (approximately 8-10 oz. can)
1 pkg. Cupcake Papers
3 containers Frosting, 1 White, 1 Orange and 1 Dark Chocolate (or make your own)
1 container Halloween Sprinkles
1 bag multi-colored Gummy Worms
1 bag Raisins
Secure your little one into their highchair with the tray attached, hand them a mixing bowl and spoon, allowing them to mix the Spice Cake Mix, Oil and the can of Solid Pumpkin (instead of the water on the cake box directions). Do not add the eggs until you've taken the bowl from your child, you will mix the raw eggs yourself.
Prior to adding the eggs, trade your toddler the Cupcake Papers and a muffin baking tin. Instruct your toddler to put the paper liners into the muffin tins, while you add the eggs and finish mixing the batter. Fill the muffin tins and bake according to the package directions for cupcakes, or 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes (until golden or when a knife poke comes out clean). Allow to cool about ½ hour to prevent melting the frosting.
While waiting for the cupcakes to cook and cool, have the kids open up (or make your own) cupcake frosting. Have your little ones dip the cooled cupcakes into the icing, top first and they're ready to decorate with sprinkles, multi-color gummy worms and/or raisins. Suggest pumpkin faces, eyes, nose and mouth while asking your child to point out their own facial features.
This toddler cooking/decorating craft teaches your child science. By mixing liquids and solids, and baking the gooey batter with oven heat forcing a change in its chemical composition, the colors and decorations of fall, while reinforcing language and facial recognition.
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
(Don't worry your little one won't be eating or choking on these.)You'll need:
1 medium to small Pumpkin (with a stem)
Sea Salt
Cut around the top of your Pumpkin (with stem) and set it aside to use in the next craft (read ahead to get ideas for cutting your pumpkin top off). Have your toddler hollow out the pumpkin, pulling out the squishy strings and seeds to place into a bowl, while you and/or your older kids separate out the seeds. Set the pumpkin aside for the last project.
Rinse the seeds off with water, spread onto a flat cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea-salt. Bake in the oven on low (about 250 degrees) until golden and crisp ½ hour to 1 hour, or until the seeds are as crunchy as you'd like them, without burning. This is a choking hazard for children under three years old so instead have them snack on raisins during this project.
This craft teaches tactile experimentation with a substance most of us don't usually come in contact with, plus it feels Halloween squishy. Your toddler also gets to taste the insides of a nutritious raw pumpkin while cleaning it out.
Pumpkin Stamping
You'll need:
Pumpkin Top (w/stem from above)
Several 8 ½" x 11" Cardstock Paper, or white Cardboard
1 Ink Pad, Non-toxic, Washable Orange Ink
Show your child how to dab the Pumpkin Top on the Orange Ink Pad and stamp pumpkins onto your Cardstock or Cardboard. Allow to dry and hang on the refrigerator! Pumpkin pictures for the holidays!
You could draw Jack-O-Lantern faces on them with marker pens, if you'd like. Put the pumpkin top back onto your hollowed-out pumpkin for the next craft.
This craft teaches recycled art using a live plant substance for the rubber stamp. It also helps with hand/eye coordination and is a lot of fun for your toddler.
Decorated Porch-Pumpkin/Jack-O-Lantern
1 jar Black Finger Paint
1 jar Red Finger Paint
1 jar Blue Finger Paint
1 package Sponge Brushes
1 package Sponge Triangles
2 Miniature Pumpkins (optional)
If you enjoy cutting out your pumpkins, go ahead carve it and keep a touch or tap-light in it instead of candle fire. I have however found a better way to engage little ones (as well as older children) with a safe decorated porch-pumpkin craft.
Using your hollowed-out pumpkin with inked-up stem-top back on top, help your toddler paint a Jack-O-Lantern face, multi-colored curly hair and anything else your child wants to paint onto your porch pumpkin. If your toddler has difficulty with a larger pumpkin let them try painting miniature pumpkins. Allow painted pumpkins to dry.
Your older kids can then take the painted porch pumpkin and glue on fall leaves for additional hair with a cool glue gun (or white craft glue). They could also add gourds for ears, hats, etc. Or even turn the pumpkin into a turkey by gluing multi-colored feathers behind in a fan-shape, with a gourd for the head and neck.
This porch-pumpkin craft teaches shapes, paints and colors applied to a round, bumpy object while your older kids learn problem-solving skills as they combine dimensional objects with nature art.
Here are four great fall pumpkin crafts combining science, art, recycling, nature and problem-solving lessons for all your kids. You'll give your toddlers a head-start into using the scientific process, and by engaging all five of your child's senses lessons are clearly remembered and enjoyed.
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