What You Need

Brown Paper Bag

Orange Paint

Black Construction Paper

Green Pipe Cleaners

Safety Scissors

Scotch Tape

A Pencil

Newspaper

What To Do

Give each preschooler a brown paper bag and some pieces of newspaper. Have preschoolers use safety scissors to cut the newspaper into strips. Preschoolers can tear the pieces of newspaper if they prefer. Crumple up the newspaper strips and fill the paper bag about half way. Tie the bag shut just above the newspaper filling by twisting a green pipe cleaner around it. Show preschoolers how to wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner around a pencil to curl them. You can add additional pipe cleaners to create more pumpkin vines if you want.

Have preschoolers paint the bottom section of the pumpkin orange. While the pain is dry, have preschoolers cut triangles out of black construction paper. Allow preschoolers to be creative. If they want to experiment with different shapes or formations let them.

When the paint is dry, use scotch tape to attach the black triangles to one side of the pumpkin to create a jack-o-lantern face. You can use glue if you want but tape works best because of the curve of the pumpkin and the paint underneath.

Preschoolers will have an adorable paper pumpkin to get them in the spirit of Halloween.

Like this article? Get more like it in your inbox. Subscribe today to our free weekly newsletter.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Expose children to multiple languages early if possible. The preschool window is the most efficient period for language acquisition the brain will ever have.

• Learning environments matter. A space with accessible books, puzzles, art supplies, and natural materials at child height encourages more learning than a child-proofed empty room.

• Curiosity is more valuable than knowledge. A curious child who doesn't know the answer will find it. A knowledgeable child who has lost curiosity will stop learning.

• Sleep is educational. Memory consolidation — the process of moving learning from short-term to long-term memory — happens during sleep. Well-rested children learn more effectively.

• Choose toys that grow with the child: open-ended materials (blocks, clay, art supplies) remain valuable for years; single-use toys with one correct answer produce brief engagement.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much learning time should a preschooler have per day?

All of it — because preschoolers learn continuously through every interaction with their environment. The question of "learning time" implies that learning is separate from living, which it isn't at this age. A preschooler who plays freely, has rich conversations, is read to, helps in the kitchen, plays outdoors, and is exposed to music and art is having the richest possible educational experience. Formal, scheduled "learning time" is less productive than a generally enriched daily environment.

How do I know if my preschooler is learning enough at home?

Developmental milestones (not academic benchmarks) are the appropriate assessment tool for preschoolers. Verify your child is meeting age-appropriate milestones for language, motor, social-emotional, and cognitive development using your pediatrician's well-child visit assessments. Preschoolers learning through play, conversation, books, and daily life engagement are learning more than their standardized test scores will later reflect. Concern is warranted if a child shows regression in skills previously mastered, or fails to meet speech and language milestones.

Related reading: See also our alphabet activities and our read-aloud guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌐 World Knowledge — Background knowledge about the world dramatically accelerates reading comprehension — children who know more understand more of what they read — making every content-area learning experience a literacy investment.
• 😊 Love of Learning — Positive early learning experiences build a child's identity as a learner — and children who see themselves as curious, capable learners approach school with the engagement and resilience that matter more than any specific skill.
• 🔢 Early Numeracy — Hands-on counting, sorting, measuring, and pattern work develops the number sense and mathematical reasoning that formal arithmetic will later build on — and preschool numeracy is one of the strongest predictors of later math achievement.
• 👂 Listening & Attention — Activities that require children to listen carefully and follow directions build the voluntary auditory attention that classroom learning, reading comprehension, and conversation all require.

Preschoolers will love making this paper bag pumpkin as a special Halloween craft activity. This Halloween art project makes a wonderful holiday decoration for preschoolers desks at school or at home as a centerpiece for a festive meal.

Questions to Ask Your Child

Use these open-ended prompts to extend the learning during or after the activity:

• "What was the most interesting thing you learned today?"
• "Can you explain this to a stuffed animal as if they've never heard of it?"
• "What part do you want to practice more?"
• "How is this connected to something you already know?"
• "What would you want to learn more about?"
• "If you were the teacher, what would you tell the class about this?"

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The goal is to keep the conversation going, model curious thinking, and give your child practice putting their experience into words.