What can a baby do to celebrate fall? Tons!
Celebrating fall with babies can be a lot of fun! you can make lots of crafts together or you can make toys they can use. Create a pumpkin craft for babies and let them explore different textures.
Sensory play is critical for babies’ developing brains, and you’ll enjoy watching as your child discovers new textures.
Sensory play activities and materials encourage children to develop their senses, This pumpkin craft for babies will allow them to explore just that.
Supplies to make a pumpkin craft for babies:
- Styrofoam or real pumpkin
- Hot glue gun
Sensory materials such as:
- dried colored rice
- pom-poms
- feathers
- Raised shiny stickers
- Other sensory materials could be: Pipe cleaners, felt, bird seeds, dried corn.
Step by Step Instructions to make a pumpkin craft for babies
You can get very creative when making a sensory fall pumpkin. Here is how I did mine, but you can use any sensory materials you have at hand.
Start with the Stem
Start by covering the stem wrapping twine around it and gluing it with a hot glue gun. I had two do two layers to cover it completely.
Create the first Sensory layer
The first layer I chose to do was the small pom-poms. I created a triangle shaped following the already curves the pumpkin had. Once I had the edges completed, I started filling up the missing spaces inside. After I was done, I still had to add a few more here and there overlapping some to cover the pumpkin completely.
Continue to layer On
I found these stickers at the Dollar Store (I am fan #1 of that store for all things sensory play! ) they started sticking ok, but after a few moments playing with it, the glue wasn’t strong enough. I reinforce it with hot glue gun to make sure they stayed put.
Color rice is one of my favorite sensory play materials to do. You can easily color rice with this tutorial and do lots of sensory play. Add small layers of hot glue gun and press on some colored rice. Then, shake off any extra rice and wait until it is fully dry.
Pair it with a book
I love to pair sensory activities with a story. We had recently purchased this book and love reading it. Choose a book that features pumpkins and read it as you play with the sensory fall pumpkin craft you have created.
This activity offers an opportunity for learning new vocabulary.
Words like:
- Pumpkin
- Soft
- Hard
- Feather
- Shiny
- cat… and any other Halloween elements featured on the book.
PRINT & SAVE THE SENSORY FALL PUMPKIN RECIPE
Notes
Note: Always appropriate supervision when completing all activities. Infants require special caution, only use non-toxic materials, and do not allow infants to put things in their mouths that are a choking hazard.
Ingredients
- Styrofoam or real pumpkin
- Hot Glue Gun
- Dried color rice
- Pom-poms
- Feathers
- Raised shiny stickers
- Twine
Instructions
- Prepare for the activity by creating the sensory pumpkin. hot glue the twine around the stem of the pumpkin.
- Hot glue the different materials onto the sides of the pumpkin by creating rows and leaving some of the pumpkin exposed.
- Allow for the hot glue to dry completely.
- Place the pumpkin in an appropriate area and invite the child to explore with you.
- As they are playing, give them new vocabulary words to describe the textures and materials.
- Converse with the child until they tire of the activity.
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