Fall foliage is in full force! It's apple picking, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treat time!! 👻
Last year we went to carve our pumpkin and realized just how complicated creating a jack-o-lantern can be. We choose a LARGE pumpkin that had deep grooves which made it near impossible to draw shapes for Daddy to cut out. The marker couldn't even make a straight line. Then Ivan's pin pricking kit came into play!
How we figured out a short cut to pumpkin carving that included Ivan participating in a very helpful role:
- Design your pumpkin face - need inspiration? search online for different jack-o-lantern faces
- Draw the mouth and eye shapes on white paper
- Then, place each eye and mouth on the pumpkin & secure with painters tape
- Let your child pin prick the pattern directly on the pumpkin
*the pins are SHARP, not toys! - Remove the paper shapes and see the trail of pin pokes left behind
- Have an adult cut out shapes & circle around top
- Clean out guts of pumpkin
- Light & Enjoy!
Pin-pricking isn't just a good way to carve your pumpkin, it is used in Montessori classrooms as a way to reinforce the proper grip for a writing skills, it strengthens fine motor hand muscles, and a great exercise for concentration! We've put together pin-pricking kits you can use in your home. Each kit includes a holding case (3 colors available: blue, green, pink); sponge, pin pricker, assortment of fall colored leaves and an apple! Order your pin-pricking kit with fall leaves + apple here.
Last year, I used brown packaging from an amazon shipment to make a tree in on our home office wall and this year a Trader Joe's paper grocery bags. Ripping the paper in long strips I just taped the strips on the wall in the shape of a tree trunk & branches. Ivan could come in and pin-prick 1 or more leaves and hang. It ended up being super cute and a great little activity for him.
How to use the pin-pricking kit to build your fall foliage tree:
- Rip long strips of brown paper, to build a trunk & branches, taping to the wall
- Have your child choose a leaf or apple shape to pin prick
- The shape gets placed on top of the sponge to avoid pokes in your table!
- Your child should poke along the line of the shape and may need help poking the shape out when complete
- Your child can tape to the tree!