Halloween book activity: make a paper mache pumpkin

I must admit… I don’t like Halloween.  It could be that I don’t enjoy being scared and spooky stuff gives me the creeps.  It could be that my birthday is right before Halloween and quite frankly my birthday is one thing I just don’t like to share.  What I do love is kids’ crafts, cute Halloween activities and DRESS UP!  So coming at Halloween from my “mom perspective” makes Halloween a little more fun.  I came across these pumpkins and waited for the perfect opportunity to get crafting!

Halloween Book Activity

This book is one I read as a child.  When Little M and I saw it at the used book store, I snatched it right up.   I had Little M pick a character from the book and we used the paper mache idea to bring the character to life!  (There is nothing particularly special about this book, it’s okay but not one I would give a rave review.  You could switch this book out for your favorite Halloween story and create a character from that book.)

Little M choose the spider who dresses up as a pumpkin for Halloween.

Little M and I cut tissue paper into strips.  (I did most of the cutting and left a little for her to cut.  You need quite a bit and I wanted to make sure we were ready to move to the next step quickly.)

We worked together to brush Mod Podge onto a balloon.  (Use whatever glue you have.  I bought Mod Podge for a different project and have never used it… so that’s what we used)  Watering down the glue seemed to keep the tissue from ripping, we didn’t add very much though.  This part took a long time and Little M wandered off to color and then came back.  I was happy that she was a part of the process, but ready to do most of the work.

We looked at the character in the book and discussed different ways we could add the features.  Little M is always firm in her creative decisions so I basically sat back and watched as she glued on eyes using balloons and tissue paper.  She also used black and white tissue to make a mouth.  Then we hung the balloon upside down to dry.  (We used a cloths pin to hook it to a drying rack Hubs has set up in the garage.  You could hook it to a pant hanger.)

Once it was dry (it took a little over 24 hours) Little M cut the balloon and we watched it shrivel up leaving the tissue paper shell.

I cut the bottom so that the the Spider Pumpkin could stand evenly.  I poked holes in the paper mache where Little M wanted them and used pipe cleaners for the spider legs.

Little M hot glued a leaf for the top of the pumpkin.  I just love our little pumpkin spider!!! It turned out to be such a cute decoration, and a nice little reminder of something from my childhood.

What is your favorite part of Halloween?

This post is a part of the Halloween lesson plan.