Pumpkin Sun Catchers

This is an adorable little project that promises great results and focuses on fine motor skills!

You will need:

black construction paper

white crayons

1 roll clear contact paper (cut into 12x8 pieces, 2 for each child)

1" cut squares of orange tissue paper

twine, ribbon, or string

First, we read the book "The Bumpy Little Pumpkin" by Margery Cuyler and talked about our pumpkin traditions at our own houses. Next, we used white crayons to draw our jack-o-lantern's face...and our name (we need this for later!)

Next, the students cut their features out of the black paper, and cut their names out too! They stuck their facial features onto a piece of clear contact paper (I've found that I used the 12" rolls and cut the pieces 8"x12" and this size works just fine. Of course you could make it bigger or smaller!) When finished, they flipped their name over and stuck it on too so it would be visible from the front of their project

The students then used orange pieces of tissue paper to create their pumpkin. This was a great lesson on "implied shape" and "implied line" since they had nothing to really work off. If you had ESE students, or students younger than PreK that are doing this lesson you could put a paper circle template UNDER the contact paper so they had a shape to work off of...but I kind of like how each one turned out a little bit differently! In fact, we discussed how each pumpkin in the pumpkin patch is a little different and that's what makes hunting for the "perfect pumpkin" at the pumpkin patch so much fun!!!

I then stuck a second piece of contact paper to the back, punched holes in them, and looped some twine through. the kids just ADORE them and so do I!

These sun-catchers are meant to hang in a sunny window so the sunlight can glow through the tissue paper. Of course not ONE student would let me keep theirs to hang in the windows of my classroom. Little boogers all wanted to take them home! Gah! The nerve!!!

Hope you're inspired...and Happy (early!) Halloween!

Joanna Davis-Lanum is a National Board Certified Art Teacher and teaches at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. She is the author and voice behind her classroom blog We Heart Art. She loves her little pumpkins, even though sometimes they are tricks instead of treats!