Ages: 18 months (with help). My 28 month old did this almost unassisted once I showed her what to do.
- Sheets of foam or construction paper in black and orange
- Scissors (for you)
- Cotton swabs
- Container to put glue in (I used a clean babyfood jar lid)
- Plastic sandwich bags (3)
- Magnetic tape (optional)
- Put small amount of glue in lid
- Cut out large and small pumpkins from orange foam
- Cut out lots of different eye, nose, and mouth shapes
- Sort eyes, noses, and mouths into sandwich bags
- Do the first pumpkin (without using glue). Show them how to choose 2 eyes. I asked her "How many eyes should our pumpkin have?" Two is normally the answer, unless your child wants to make a cyclops or another creative idea. I also tried to involve shapes, asking "Are you going to choose the square or triangle nose? Do you want the oval or half moon shaped mouth?"
- I put the eyes down on the pumpkin and showed her how to dip the cotton swab and put glue on the back of the eyes. I then explained that the white part (the part with the glue) has to touch the orange pumpkin. Repeat with nose and mouth.
Once we did one together, I let her do it on her own.