Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean you should rid your home of pumpkins. Thanksgiving is an ideal time to showcase the fresh orange globes in a seasonal display. Unfortunately, most stores stop selling pumpkins the day after Halloween. This sad fact means most parents have to get creative when it comes to setting up a Thanksgiving pumpkin display.
The following simple salt dough pumpkin art project was a bonafide hit with our preschool playgroup last year. All you’re doing is whipping up a batch of salt dough and shaping it into miniature pumpkins. Once the pumpkins are formed the kids have a blast decorating them with supplies you can find around your home.
MINI SALT DOUGH PUMPKINS
Materials:
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup flour (not self-rising)
Toothpicks for shaping dough
Acrylic paint (orange, black, brown, green)
Paintbrushes
8 small sticks for pumpkin stems
Note: Recipe makes about eight 2-inch pumpkins.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Mix salt and warm water in a large bowl until salt dissolves.
Add flour and let kids take turns kneading mixture by hand.
Give each child a portion of the dough and let him roll his portion into small balls. (If you are worried about the size make a sample pumpkin and place it in the middle of the table for the children to use as a guide.)
Use the side of a toothpick to make pumpkin striations. (If you have a real miniature pumpkin on hand I would suggest setting that out as a sample so the kids can have a guide to base their own pumpkins after.)
Poke a hole in the top of the dough pumpkin for the stem, which will be inserted later.
Bake dough pumpkins on an ungreased pan for 2 hours.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Paint with acrylic paints.
Once the paint is dry, insert the small sticks or branches into the tops of the pumpkins.
For fancier pumpkins:
Paint on glue and roll pumpkins in glitter.
Add leaves to the top of the pumpkins or twist green pipe cleaners to make pumpkin tendrils.
Have children embellish pumpkins with stickers, sequins or puffy paint.
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