Easy Preschool Pumpkin Craft for Autumn

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One of my absolute favorite craft simple supplies that I always keep in my craft bag (a good variety of it) is washi tape! This easy preschool pumpkin craft is using orange washi tape in a few different patterns, but you can also feel free to make white pumpkins…or pink or purple…or rainbow! This is your craft, and you should use colors that you love.

Not only does washi tape give you lots of options for design, but it’s perfect for practicing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination for little hands too. Though this craft can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. You’ll be having so much fun with this easy pumpkin craft that you’re going to want to make even more Fall crafts, like this pumpkin pie, these Fall leaf puppets and this sunflower craft or keep the pumpkin theme going with real pumpkins to decorate.

Craft Memories Together with this Collection of 100 Craft Flashcards

Fun Facts about Jack-o-Lanterns:

Jack-o-lanterns used to be carved from turnips, not pumpkins.
In the United States, the carved pumpkins were first associated with harvest season and then became a symbol of Halloween.
The tradition of carving competitively can be traced back to 19th century Ireland.
The name of jack-o’-lanterns comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack.

To learn more about jack-o-lanterns, check out this article from Crafty Moms Share.

Add this to your favorite Pumpkin Craft Ideas on Pinterest…

An image showing an easy pumpkin craft for preschoolers made with washi tape, designed as a fun fall craft and fine motor activity.

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How to make a simple Jack-o-lantern craft

Adding a happy or scary face to your cute pumpkin craft is a fun way to turn your pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, perfect for the Halloween season. But you can also feel free to leave it as is and skip steps 4 and 5.

SUPPLIES FROM THE BAG

Construction paper (we used black, green and yellow)
Scissors
Glue stick
Pencil
Crayons (optional)
Washi tape (we used orange patterns)

You don’t need thousands of dollars in craft supplies to be creative. As a matter of fact, we stick to just one bag of basic supplies to make everything that you see on this site. Prep once and you’re ready to go. For the list to fill your craft bag, go HERE.

Check Out the Video Tutorial:

Easy Pumpkin Craft Instructions:

Step 1: Create Your Pumpkin Patch

Choose a color of construction paper for your background . We chose black.
Then take a separate piece of construction paper and tear a strip about 1 1/2″ wide, unevenly.
Glue it to the bottom of the page using your glue stick. This is the base of your pumpkin patch.

Washi tape preschool pumpkin craft step 1 tearing paper and gluing in place for grass

Step 2: Make a Pumpkin Shape from Washi Tape

Choose some washi tape to use to create your pumpkin. You can use whatever colors you like. We chose 3 patterns of orange for our pumpkin.
Tear pieces of washi tape about 5 inches long and criss cross them in the center of your page, sitting in the pumpkin patch.
Keep adding pieces of washi tape in criss cross patterns until you have a circle that is filled in.

*If you choose, start this step by drawing a circle in pencil. Then fill in that circle with your washi tape. This is especially helpful for young kids. You can tera the pieces of washi tape however you want rather than criss crossing with this approach.

Step 3: Add the Stem to Your Preschool Pumpkin Craft

It’s time to add the stem to your sweet pumpkin craft.
Draw a small stem on a scrap of green paper and cut it out.
Then use your glue stick to add it to the top of your pumpkin.

Step 4 (Optional): Give Your Pumpkin a Face

To make the face of your jack-o-lanter, choose some scraps of paper and draw the eyes and mouth (and nose if you want). The face can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Cut out the parts and glue them in place using your glue stick. This is another great opportunity to practice more skills, like drawing and cutting out shapes.

*Use googly eyes instead of cutting out paper eyes for a different look.

Step 5 (Optional): Decorate the Background

Grab your crayons or markers and add some details to your background. There are not rules here. Just use your creativity.

What if I Don’t Have Washi Tape?

First of all…get some today! It’s so inexpensive and comes in just about any color or pattern you can imagine. But, in the meantime, if you don’t have washi tape, use tissue paper squares or torn pieces of orange construction paper instead. You could even get out the orange paint and fill a circle with orange fingerprints.

Using This Craft in a Pumpkin Unit

If you’d like to use this easy craft in a pumpkin unit this Fall season, keep the idea of making a washi pumpkin but make it a bit smaller using thinner decorative tape. It’s comes in lots of different widths. Draw arrows to show how the pumpkin cycle works. You can even add some real pumpkin seeds to the page.

Using this Craft for Letter Recognition

Easy pumpkin activities are the perfect way to teach the letter P. First make the craft and instead of adding a face, add a big cut out or painted letter P. This is great for kindergarten students, as well as preschoolers. The best part is that they’ll be having so much fun they won’t even realize they’re learning.