What You Will Need

12-24 large marshmallows

Toothpicks

Small cup of water

Orange, purple or black sugar sprinkles spread on a plate or cookie sheet

Chocolate licorice twists cut into half-inch pieces

Empty cardboard or Styrofoam egg cartons

How To Do It

Step 1: After your preschooler washes his or her hands, have them stick toothpicks all the way through your marshmallows. Make sure the pointy edge does not poke through.

Step 2: While they are doing this, turn the egg carton upside down and poke holes in the bottom of each egg holder.

Step 3: Dip the marshmallows into a cup of water and then roll in the sugar. At this point, push the toothpick a little more through the marshmallow and grab the pointy end (adult should do this).

Step 4: Then place the colorful treat with the toothpick into the bottom of egg carton. Top it off with a licorice twist (which will connect to the pointy edge of the toothpick that will be sticking out) for a pumpkin stump.

Step 5: Once dry, you can place the entire arrangement into a large air tight container. To pick these up, just squeeze the stump and enjoy!

Make It Even More Exciting

Although it can be a bit messier, dip marshmallows into food coloring (see your package for instructions). And you can use different kinds of licorice twists -- black or red works well too. Allow a little longer to dry, around 30 minutes.

If You Are Making These For A Party

You can color or paint the egg cartons to look more spooky or ghostly. Then put a small dish next to arrangement so everyone will have a place to put the toothpicks when they are done.

Or You Can Make Your Own Colored Sugar

Put a few spoons of sugar into a zipper top sandwich bag, and by using the color paste made for cake decorating, dip the flat end of a toothpick into the color paste and put it in the bag with the sugar. Shake until the color is even. Paste food coloring is best because it doesn't dissolve the sugar, comes in more colors and when you want to blend your own color, they mix better colors than liquid food coloring, which can come out muddy. Let dry before using as to not stain your preschooler's hands.

Remember...

Toothpicks are not toys. Make sure your preschooler is old enough to handle toothpicks before allowing them to eat the marshmallow off them.

Related Preschool Food Fun Activities

Fun With Noodles

Let your preschooler experiment with textures, shapes, colors and smells with this fun food activity -- playing with pasta. Your child can spend hours creating art with cooked noodles.

S'mores Kabobs

Even if your weather doesn't permit you to barbecue anymore, you can still have fun, tasty s'mores made indoors without all the mess. The preschool food activity allows

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Keep activity sessions shorter than you think necessary. Ending while children are still engaged leaves them wanting more — far better than waiting for meltdown.

• Join the activity briefly, then step back. Your presence signals importance; your withdrawal enables independence. 5 minutes of participation often unlocks 30 minutes of independent play.

• Connect activities to real life: cooking math, laundry color sorting, grocery store counting. Embedded learning is the most transferable kind.

• Rotate activities every few weeks rather than making everything available at once. Novelty dramatically increases engagement and play depth.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I handle the mess from activities without discouraging my child?

Establish a predictable cleanup routine rather than reacting to mess with visible frustration — your emotional response to mess teaches the child's relationship to mess. Contain messy activities to mess-appropriate spaces (outside, a table covered with a vinyl cloth, the bathtub). Make cleanup part of the activity, not a punishment for making it. Children who participate in cleanup develop responsibility; children who are sent away while adults clean up in frustration learn that making things is risky.

Related reading: See also our science experiments and our obstacle course ideas for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🧩 Problem Solving — Working through a challenge — figuring out how pieces fit, how to balance a stack, or how to make something work — develops the perseverance and logical reasoning skills children use across every learning domain.
• 🤝 Social Skills — Activities done with others — siblings, classmates, or parents — teach children how to take turns, negotiate, collaborate, and read social cues that form the basis of healthy relationships.
• 🌈 Sensory Exploration — Safe exploration of varied textures, temperatures, and materials helps children build a rich sensory map of the world and supports self-regulation in children with sensory processing differences.
• 😌 Emotional Self-Regulation — Managing the feelings that arise during activities — frustration when something doesn't work, excitement, disappointment at the end — builds the self-regulation foundation that distinguishes emotionally ready kindergarteners.

Nothing says Autumn more than a bunch of sticky, gooey marshmallows that look like pumpkins. This preschool food activity allows your child to experiment with textures and colors while having fun creating a tasty holiday treat.