5 Minute Pumpkin Sticker Dot Art

I live for all of the seasonal crafting – apple craft, bat sensory bins, pumpkin learning activities – all of it! Last year, though, I apparently spent most our October doing leaf crafts last year – leaf paintings, leaf pointillism, leaf hunts, and leaf people – and we didn’t do much with pumpkins. This is THE YEAR of the pumpkins, though – along with this 5 Minute Pumpkin Sticker Dot Art, I’ve got planned:

• paper strip pumpkins – done! (stay tuned!)
• invitation to create: Spookley shaped pumpkins
• pumpkin sight word game – done (stay tuned!)
• pumpkin investigation
• erupting pumpkins science experiment

Here’s hoping I can stay on top of sharing all the pumpkin activities with you!

Okay, first up:

5 Minute Pumpkin Sticker Dot Art

Pumpkin Art Book Pairing

I usually pair an art project or craft with a book to fit in our learning. I homeschool our kindergartener, and this year, we are studying pumpkins and we’re starting with different pumpkin appearances. So we read two books: Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin Picking Plan by Catherine Hopka and Pick a Pumpkin by Patricia Toht. Both books talk about the different shapes, heights and colors that pumpkins can be.

We’ve also been studying problem/solution with our pumpkin books, so with Splat, we talked about how books sometimes have multiple problems. In the book, Splat (a) needs to find the perfect pumpkin ( the solution is he goes to the patch and searches to find it) and (b) he can’t get the perfect pumpkin home (the solution is he rolls on top of it all the way home).

Pumpkin Dot Art Project

When I say this project is simple, I mean it. is. simple.

Seriously, this activity could not get any easier. All you need is a dot art pumpkin coloring page (I made this one) + dot circles (I bought a huge pack on Amazon for a few dollars).

Instead of using dot markers, use dot stickers to decorate the pumpkin. You can encourage your children to make patterns or stripes or let them be completely creative in the way they decide to decorate.

I told Cam I wanted to make a pastel colored pumpkin, so I used teal and light purple and pink. Camden said he wanted a ‘realistic looking pumpkin’ so he used oranges and yellows and greens. There’s no wrong or right.

This activity helps with:
🎃 fine motor skills – kids are practicing peeling stickers from the paper and sticking them onto a circle.
🎃 color recognition – Whether they’re choosing colors for their own patterns or completing one you’ve chosen, they’re practicing color matching and recognition. It’s fun to talk about colors outside of the ordinary, too – like turquoise and teal and magenta.
🎃 creativity – letting them decide how they want to make their pumpkin look lets them exercise their creative muscles. Plus they’re practicing decision making, because they’re making their own choices.

You could also put a small dot in each circle on the paper with a marker (use different colors), then have them match sticker colors to complete the pumpkin.

When the pumpkins are finished, you can leave them as a full page – they look really cute in a thrift store frame! – or you can cut the pumpkins out with scissors or a craft knife. My kid requested the page be left whole, so that’s how ours are!

Looking For More Fall Crafts and Learning Activities?

Make sure you check out our Leaf Unit and Apple Unit from last year! So many crafts, books, and learning activities all together!