Sandpaper Pumpkin
This craft was inspired by a follower on twitter, her son has a visual disability and she asked me if I have any crafts for children who had similar disabilities. I was embarrassed to have to say no. I started gathering supplies , brushing up on my early childhood special education and brainstorming crafts. I will be including more crafts and activities specifically geared towards children with special needs in the coming months. I would love to hear from other parents with requests! When a child has lost some or all of their vision the importance of other senses becomes heightened. Today we focused on touch but also sound with this Halloween craft.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 sheets of sand paper, we used one very fine sheet and the other was large and rough. Orange and green paint, a black marker, scissors and glue.
- Start by drawing or having your child draw a pumpkin on the sandpaper. We made a separate stem but you don’t need to.
- Finger paint the pumpkin. My son was shocked to feel the sandpaper. ” This weird paper mama, it tickles.” You can imagine my happiness hearing that , that was the point. To feel , describe it and explore.
- While they finger paint draw the jack-o-lantern face on the 2nd piece of sandpaper.
- Hand your child the black marker and have them color the face . My son did not like this at all, it wasn’t easy to color on the sand paper and it’s roughness jiggled his hand.
- Cut the face pieces out.
- Cut out the pumpkin.
- Add glue
- Spread the massive amount of glue wher eyou need it! Pop on the stem on the pumpkin
- Glue the eyes , nose and mouth on.
- Let dry.
Reader Book Reviews !
“Shy Mama’s Halloween” by Anne Broyles sent in my Lynn. This book tells the beautiful story of a Russian family that recently settled in the United States and experiences its first Halloween. The mother, a naturally shy woman, speaks little English and is understandably hesitant about the idea of mingling with goblins and ghosts. She helps to make her children’s costumes, but leaves the task of trick-or-treating to her husband and the children. When her husband is too ill to take the children, Mama leaves her fears behind and takes the children out… read the complete review.
“Ten Timid Ghosts” by Jennifer O’Connell sent in by Janelle . The favorite Halloween book this year at our house is definitely Ten Timid Ghosts
by Jennifer O’Connell. Seriously, I’ve read the book so many times, I can recite it by memory. Everything Halloween is included in this read: A haunted house, ghosts, a witch, skeleton, bat, ghoul, cat, owl, vampire, monster, spider, rat, mummy and trick-or-treating. Really, you can’t ask for more! But wait, there is more… read the complete review.
Thank you Lynn from Chronicles of an Infant Bibliophile and Janelle from Brimful Curiosities for sending in these reviews and allowing me to share them with my readers. If you haven’t seen their blogs, please pop over they are two of my favorite for books!
Kristi says
This is a great idea!
.-= Kristi´s last blog ..Digging for Dinosaur Bones =-.
Julie says
This is a wonderful idea for Halloween and for teaching about the sense of touch. I love it! BTW, I have an award for you on my blog. 🙂
.-= Julie´s last blog ..My First Award =-.
Lil' Ms.P says
I love it. Kids really love textures. I actually just posted an texture activity as well. It was based off of Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider. Thanks for all the great ideas!
.-= Lil’ Ms.P´s last blog ..stART- The Very Busy Spider =-.
crystal says
I was just making my christmas/birthday lists and need some advice. Son #1 will be 3 and son #2 will be 16months at Christmas. I want to mostly get them learning toys or books. I would LOVE, LOve, LoVe you to do a post or just email what you think some of the “must-have” gifts would be. Thanks
crystalboom at hotmail dot com
admin says
What a wonderful idea! I’m on it!
Mena says
Colored chalk works really well on sandpaper! And I think I might have dipped the chalk in water before applying to sandpaper.
admin says
Ohhh I will try that next time! Thanks!
Beverly says
very good idea!
.-= Beverly´s last blog ..Flash Cards =-.
Janelle @ Brimful Curiosities says
Thanks for mentioning my review. I might just have to make a stART project out of it next week.
.-= Janelle @ Brimful Curiosities´s last blog ..Curious Chef Children’s Cooking Products – Review and Giveaway =-.
Meg says
My kids’ summer camp does chalk on sandpaper. They get large pieces of paper and many colors of chalk to use. The results look gorgeous w/deep color b/c the grain of the sandpaper grabs the chalk so well.
Thanks for the pumpkin idea. We’ll try it this week.
Vanessa Kerr says
Your stuff is simply amazing!! The creative ideas you have it seems are endless. I have a 3-year-old and when school started this year we have been having “school time” each day. A lady I met named Esther Kehl created her own learning the letters curriculum which is the best I have ever seen http://www.seeheardocompany.com, recommended your blog to me. I’m so excited to do the activities you have listed here.
admin says
Thank you so much, I am so excited to here we were recommended by Esther, that’s wonderful! I hope you have fun exploring what we have with your 3 year old, it’s such a great age to dive into all this.