Q-Tip Painted Pumpkin Craft

I am always looking for simple art projects that I can have ready for my PreK students during free choice. Even better is when those simple art projects also work on essential skills like fine motor skills. In PreK, one of the skills we hope our students have by the end of the school year is a tripod pencil grip, so we spend a lot of time doing activities that help develop this. Using small painting tools like q-tips that require a pincer grasp and don’t allow a full fist grasp to maneuver the device is just one of many options for an activity that builds these skills. These sweet little Q-tip painted pumpkins can easily be done independently, making it a perfect free-choice art option.

Gather your materials. You will need some small paper plates, paint, q-tips, and green sticky back foam.

Start by cutting your sticky back foam into stems for your paper plate pumpkins.

Peel off only a little of the backing and pop the sticky part on the paper plate.

Voila, you have pumpkins ready for paint.

Pop the plates and paint on your art table and allow children to paint.

As I prep this activity at home, I am just using the caps of my paint, but I will have trays at school.

Paint!

I love this q-tip painted pumpkin craft because of its pincer grasp skill development, but it’s also how beautiful the painting turns out!

You can make splotches and lines.

Or be orthodox and make dots!

More Pumpkin Crafts & Activities

Check out the activities above and so much more in our pumpkin activity archive right here! 

 

Pumpkin Books

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Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming is a wonderful Halloween book for kids who are old enough to feel like Halloween is a spooky night, but still too young for anything graphically frightening.  The text is short but rhymes beautifully and grabs your child’s attention almost as effectively as the illustrations do. The story is all about Halloween night and the sights and sounds on one street as the night goes on.

The Runaway Pumpkin by Anne Margaret Lewis reminds me of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown only it doesn’t creep me out. This little story is about an adventurous little pumpkin who imagines his Halloween adventures, and his mom plays along. There is no stalking vibe like I get from the Runaway Pumpkin. Also, every 2nd page is a full two-page illustration with no text. It’s a fun way to slow the book down and allow readers and listeners to ask questions and discuss as they read.

 

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell is a great fall board book that isn’t just about Halloween. It starts with a family going to pick pumpkins and apples at a local farm and ends with trick or treating. I like how this book shows the process and progression that fall events take throughout the season. It’s a great circle time book for 2-3-year-olds.