I am super excited about the craft we did today to go along with the book Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach. This is a pretty popular Halloween story that is the well-known Five Little Pumpkins rhyming finger play in story version. I felt like it's more of a 3yr old book, but we read it pointing to each word and my boys were able to read along with me after reading through it several times. Regardless of it being a simple book for them, it is a fun rhyme that they enjoyed.
The basis of our craft is found on the first page when the five pumpkins are sitting on the gate. I picked up this book at the library last week knowing I wanted to do a craft with it, but wasn't sure just what to do. Then a couple days ago I saw a pin on Pinterest from kidsfunreviewed.com and I jumped with delight because it was one of those "over the top" crafts that I adore and I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.
I intended on posting a tutorial but once we got involved in the project I realized how INVOLVED it was and decided to just leave you with the link to the one that I used. It took us a couple hours to complete our artwork, but look how cute our pumpkins on a fence turned out.
Andy's Artwork
Close up of his pumpkins. He chose to use markers to decorate his, which I ultimately decided was easier than trying to use crayons to make details on the small pumpkin heads.
Luke's Artwork
He used crayons like me and his pumpkins are....SCARY!
My Artwork
I tried to mimic the pumpkins in the actual story. Like I said, it was hard to use the crayons but I think they turned out pretty cute.
For the background we tried out watercolor salt painting. I had actually never heard of it before, and I tried a Google search of how to do it, but not much came up. We basically just used blue and purple watercolor paints to paint the paper and as we went along we sprinkled salt on the paper when it was still very wet. I didn't get quite the starry texture that the tutorial showed so maybe I did it wrong, who knows. If you've used this technique before, I'd love to hear how you did it. Once the artwork was all the way put together I do think the background still had a nice texture and was glad we used the salt.
I also wanted to mention that I drew the pumpkins and the boys cut them out themselves. Luke needed a little help with the hill background so I drew the hill on the paper and then he easily cut it out himself. Both the boys had a go at cutting out their own leaves, and then I gave then some I cut out as well. Also, both boys were able to make the cuts in the rectangle pieces for the grass. There was a lot of cutting practice in this project making it perfect for a preschooler.
One more hint before I go, TACKY GLUE! Using tacky glue for our sticks and pumpkins worked perfectly because it is thicker than school glue and dries a lot faster. This helped everything stick into place nicely without any fuss with so many different layers going on. We used a glue stick for everything else.
Happy Crafting!!
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21 comments:
Love it! I was about to post the craft we did that I saw somewhere for this book.
I added a link back to yours as an alternative. http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/10/childrens-halloween-books-and-crafts.html
Soo cute!! I love these. Very cool!
That is gorgeous! What a great tie in to the book. You are all so talented and crafty. I am a new follower on Twitter. Vicky from www.messforless.net
What lovely pictures you all made here and I love it when things are linked up to a book or story, great idea. Thanks for popping by my blog and leaving such a lovely comment.
Ellie
createwithyourhands.blogspot.com
Over the top is right - but it turned out gorgeously!
Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
I love the layering effect of the artwork.
My son came home with this activity from school - of course it was from a worksheet but he has been singing the song since he came in the door. It's fun to change it from 5 little pumpkins to 5 little ghosts to 5 little whatevers.
These are so seriously cute! Wish I would've seen them before we did our Mommy and Me Book Club on Monday that was 5 Little Pumpkin themed. I totally would've had the kids make these!!
I may just have to make them anyway with my little guy. ADORABLE!
This is so cute, I love it!!
As always, I love it. My 3 year old would love it too. I need to pin this one to my "Homeschool" board on Pinterest.
Blessings!
They turned out great! I love doing this craft with the kids! But yours are so stinking cute!
Thanks for sharing on the Holiday Kid Craft Link Up!
I just started a link party on Saturdays and would love you to add this and any of your great crafts to it. http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharing-saturday.html
Thanks!
Oh we love that book!!! And your craft is amazing! Such an awesome idea! :)
We love that book too...our's a different version though. Love the detail on your pumpkins :)
Come join us at Hey Mom, Look What I Did (at Adventures In Mommy Land)...love to have you!!
Love this book, love the idea, I showed it off today!
Carlee
http://www.ladybirdln.com/2011/10/weekend-show-off-features-1017.html
So cute! I love activities based on books. I am starting a Linky Party if you want to link up at http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-ever-linky-party.html
so cute! I love when you do these over the top crafts - gives me hope that maybe we can handle it! :)
Thank you so much for linking to last week's Sunday Showcase! We would love for you to stop by & share some more ideas on this week's linky - now open!
Bern
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase
So so cute!!
Thanks for sharing on momstown arts and crafts Halloween linkup!
Thanks for sharing on Hey Mom, Look What I Did!! Hope to see you again!
I know I commented earlier that these are adorable... but thanks for taking the time to share them at our Best of October link up too! I'm sure everyone that stopped by loved checking them out!!
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