Pumpkin Sun Catcher Fall Craft - Fantastic Fun & Learning

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Pumpkins and fall go hand in hand. As the seasonal change shifts and cooler weather comes, it is time to harvest the pumpkins and dive into our pumpkin theme. After reading one of our favorite nonfiction books about pumpkins, The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons, we decided to extend the text with a pumpkin craft. We had so much fun making leaf sun catchers in the past that we wanted to enjoy another fun sun catcher craft this fall. This pumpkin sun catcher fall craft is great for little and bigger hands. You can work on flexing those fingers with some fine motor practice with this fun fall pumpkin craft!

FIND EVEN MORE PUMPKIN THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.

Materials for Pumpkin Sun Catcher Fall Craft

Contact paper
Construction paper
Tissue paper
Scissors
Glue Stick
Green pipe cleaner
Hole puncher

Creating a Pumpkin Sun Catcher

The first step in making a pumpkin sun catcher is to cut or tear small squares of fall colored tissue paper. We used dark and light orange colors. Tearing the tissue paper provides excellent fine motor practice for those little fingers. My toddler enjoyed hearing each piece of paper rip!

Once all of your tissue paper is prepared, provide two sheets of clear contact paper for each child. Our contact paper sheets were cut to about the size of a piece of construction paper. To get started, you will need to remove the backing of one of the sheets and tape it down to a work space with the sticky side up.

Now you can begin placing the tissue squares on the contact paper. The girls loved the sticky feeling of the paper under their fingers!

While they were sticking the tissue paper down, we talked about the different shapes and sizes of pumpkins we saw in the book. Each decided what type of pumpkin sun catcher they wanted to make and then I sketched out a tall thin pumpkin and a short and round pumpkin. After the sketches were complete, I poked a small hole inside the pumpkin and cut in to make about a half inch thick border.

Using the pumpkin outlines, I traced a second set to adhere to the back side of the sun catcher.

After the orange hues of tissue paper covered most of the paper, they helped me lay down the second layer of contact paper. You will want to do this sticky side down so that the tissue will be completely covered.

Finally, glue the border of the pumpkin down to the colorful contact paper ensuring that it covers the majority of the tissue paper.

Once this step was completed, I cut the excess contact paper off and then matched up the second set of black borders to the back of the sun catcher.

We admired our beautiful pumpkins as we held them up to the light and then the girls immediately recognized that something was missing- the vine! Using half of a green pipe cleaner, they twirled it around their fingers to give it some curl. This intricate wrapping and twirling gives added fine motor practice!

I punched a hole in the pumpkin stems and bent the vine on the back to give the sun catcher some three-dimensional character.

We chose a sunny spot in the house to hang them and made sure it was also a place where we could walk by and admire them throughout the season!

PRINTABLE PUMPKIN THEME LESSON PLANS

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

Teach kids about real pumpkins and use this theme to teach many math and literacy skills as well. Use this pumpkin theme as you get close to Halloween, for the letter P, or as part of a larger fall unit. Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set: