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Home / Early Learning / Preschool Arts and Crafts / How to Make Colorful Pumpkin Seed Art in Preschool

How to Make Colorful Pumpkin Seed Art in Preschool

Shared by Mary Catherine 30 Comments

Come on in and learn how to use colorful pumpkin seeds to create pumpkin seed art in preschool. You are definitely going to want to add this to your list of must-do preschool pumpkin activities.

This super simple fall art idea can use up your extra pumpkin seeds. And it’s a great way to talk about colors and fall leaves. Plus, it gives the kids a fun way to practice those fine motor skills.

And if the kids want to make something completely different with the materials, that’s fine too! But the dyed pumpkin seeds make lovely fall leaves, don’t they?

jars of dyed pumpkin seed and hand drawn tree with seeds as leaves with text that reads pumpkin seed art for preschoolers

Related: Name Activities with Colorful Pumpkin Seeds

This activity came about in the best way possible – the children instigated it.

I’m a big proponent of following the children’s lead when it comes to topics to explore, preschool themes to plan, and skills to practice. Of course, there’s always an overarching plan in place. But there’s also always enough wiggle room to integrate ideas that engage the children. Preschool magic happens when the kids are engaged and have ownership over their learning.

So, back to the children instigating some awesome pumpkin seed art. The conversation came about on the tail end of exploring how to dye pumpkin seeds and make them into pumpkin seed discovery bottles. We all had a blast with that process, and our colorful seeds had been in the science center for a while.

One day, a few of the children asked if we could use those seeds to make some art. My response: “Pumpkin seed art?! Of course!” Can you tell I was a little excited? Read below to find out about our process.

jars of dyed pumpkin seeds

Related: Pumpkin Seed Turkey Thanksgiving Art

Table of Contents

  • Preschool Pumpkin Seed Art
    • Materials We Used
    • Directions for Pumpkin Seed Art
    • Pumpkin Seed Art Video Tutorial
    • How My Students Created
  • Preschool Pumpkin Lesson Plans
  • More Ways to Use Pumpkin Seeds

Preschool Pumpkin Seed Art

Here’s what we did. It’s a super simple process, so I’m confident you’ll be able to replicate it in your classroom, too.

Materials We Used

First, grab your materials. Here’s what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

  • White construction paper
  • Glue bottles
  • Dyed pumpkin seeds

If you haven’t already, you can read here how to dye pumpkin seeds. You’ll need some dry pumpkin seeds (we just got ours at the store) and liquid watercolors.

rainbow dyed pumpkin seeds on a tray

Related: Pumpkin Seed Christmas Tree Art

Directions for Pumpkin Seed Art

Once you’ve gathered your supplies, it’s time to set everything up. We grabbed some paper and glue, along with a bowl full of our dyed pumpkin seeds, and sat down at the art table. Since it was a group of students who’d requested this art invitation, I already had a crowd around me.

As you’re setting up the materials, you might find your students popping by to see what’s going on. Otherwise, you can invite a few children over to the art center with you.

Then basically explain that the kids can use the materials to create whatever art they’d like to. Depending on your preferences, you could also encourage the children to grab some additional materials.

That’s really about it in terms of directions. That’s one of the great things about process art for kids – you set up the materials and leave creativity for the children.

Don’t worry, they can handle it!

child drawn fall tree with pumpkin seeds

Related: Pumpkin Geoboard Pumpkin Math

Pumpkin Seed Art Video Tutorial

Here’s a quick video to show you how you can get pumpkin seed art ready in your own classroom!

After you watch it, be sure to read about how my students ran with the idea.

Related: Pumpkin Crafts for Preschoolers

How My Students Created

Oh how I love observing children as they play, create, and learn. And inevitably bring me into a fun conversation.

Some of the children just loved running their fingers through the seeds.

Others wanted to glue the seeds all over their paper.

A few wanted to create something specific, but couldn’t decide what they wanted to make.

We ended up chatting with me about the pumpkin seeds for a while. We chatted about our observations, commenting on the different colors, the scent of the seeds, and how they felt.

Then we got on the topic of the shape of the seeds. I mentioned that they were tear-drop shaped, which led into a side discussion all about tears.

It’s preschool – we get into a lot of interesting side discussions, right!?

Once the tear-drop conversation dried up, one of the kiddos said, “The seeds look like leaves!”

That led to the decision to make fall tree pumpkin seed art. Which is what a few of us ended up doing!

We looked out the windows and observed how the trees looked so we could draw the trunks and branches.

A few of the children were insistent that I needed to make my own art project while I was there.

It didn’t take much to convince me. Sitting and creating WITH the children is just plain fun.

After we drew our tree trunks, it was onto adding the seeds. I found it interesting to observe which children added one or two and which children went wild with adding seeds to their trees.

In the end, everyone seemed rather happy with how things turned out!

It is so interesting to observe how children come up with different ideas. It’s even more fun to be a part of that process.

hand drawn fall tree with dyed pumpkin seeds as leaves

Related: Pumpkin Seed Activities

Preschool Pumpkin Lesson Plans

Preschool Teacher 101’s pumpkin theme lesson plans have more than 180 pages of daily and weekly plans, center explanations, book suggestions, and related printables.

They will make planning your preschool pumpkin theme a breeze.

Have you ever created fall seed art with your students?

If you do so, be sure to share it on Fun-A-Day’s Facebook page or tag Fun-A-Day on Instagram!

More Ways to Use Pumpkin Seeds

Here are a few more ideas for using pumpkin seeds. You can use dyed seeds or just plain seeds.

Pumpkin Seed Counting Game from Mama.Papa.Bubba

Pumpkin Seed Puzzles from I Can Teach My Child

Indian Corn Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

Originally published on October 29, 2015.

rainbow dyed pumpkin seeds with fall tree art

Filed Under: Preschool Arts and Crafts Tagged With: Fall, Pumpkins

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Comments

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  1. Kate says

    November 7, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    I. Love. This! What great ideas. I am so excited to connect with you through KBN. How exciting!!! I will be trying this asap.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      July 23, 2016 at 6:19 pm

      Thank you so very much, Kate!!!! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Deborah says

    November 9, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    This is really pretty. I love the colors of the seeds and the beautiful tree. I am sure that the kids trees will be just as beautiful. I want to try this. Thank you for the suggestion.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      November 10, 2015 at 10:50 am

      Thanks so much, Deborah! Be sure to tell me how it goes if you give it a try.

      Reply
  3. Janki says

    August 11, 2016 at 10:51 pm

    The place where I saty doesn’t have dyed pumpkin seeds ….how do I do it ?

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      August 12, 2016 at 10:02 am

      It’s linked in the directions in the post. I used liquid watercolors to dye them. The directions are here – https://fun-a-day.com/how-to-dye-pumpkin-seeds/. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Karen says

    September 17, 2016 at 12:14 am

    How did you dye the seeds?

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 17, 2016 at 7:42 pm

      Hi Karen! The directions for dyeing the seeds are in the post linked in the directions — How to Dye Pumpkin Seeds. We used liquid watercolors, but I’m sure food coloring would work, too. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Donna says

    September 20, 2016 at 4:20 am

    Hi please can you tell me how to dye the seeds x Donna

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 22, 2016 at 12:22 pm

      Hi there Donna! You can grab the seed dyeing directions in this post. We used liquid watercolors, but food coloring would work too I’m sure.

      Reply
  6. Debra says

    October 2, 2018 at 6:50 am

    What store did you find the pumpkin seeds?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      October 2, 2018 at 8:24 pm

      Hi Debra! I grabbed them from my local grocery store. 🙂 Although I think Target and Walmart likely have pumpkin seeds too.

      Reply
  7. Adriana says

    September 5, 2019 at 10:38 pm

    So cute. I will be doing this project 😊Thank you

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 11, 2019 at 12:47 pm

      Thank you! Let me know how it goes.

      Reply
  8. sally says

    September 18, 2019 at 2:24 pm

    this looks like fun

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      October 4, 2019 at 11:31 am

      Thank you! Yes, we have had a blast with this (in one variation or the other) over the years.

      Reply
  9. Frances Robertson says

    October 30, 2019 at 5:36 pm

    Trying this with my firsties tomorrow! Very excited!! Wasn’t sure how you applied glue to the seeds. I’ll be experimenting with what works on 6 year olds 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      October 30, 2019 at 7:50 pm

      We just used regular glue from the glue bottles (just be careful of using an overabundance of glue as the coloring might leech out a little – but we didn’t have much trouble with that). Let me know how it goes!!!

      Reply
      • Marlene says

        August 29, 2020 at 12:46 am

        I wonder if glue sticks would work ?

        Reply
        • Mary Catherine says

          September 27, 2020 at 5:49 pm

          You can definitely give it a try! 🙂 Let me know how it goes.

          Reply
  10. Cindy says

    September 6, 2021 at 10:40 am

    I love this idea! Thank you for sharing!
    Come on, fall!!!!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 8, 2021 at 9:33 am

      Thank you, Cindy! YES, I am so ready for fall now! 🙂 Let me know how it goes if you try the pumpkin seed art.

      Reply
  11. Casha says

    October 8, 2021 at 12:06 pm

    Is there another way to dye the seeds? I don’t have liquid watercolors and still haven’t managed to check on my supplies back home from Hurricane Ida.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      October 15, 2021 at 10:33 am

      Hi Casha! I’m sorry to hear that you were affect by Hurricane Ida!! You can try using regular food coloring to dye the pumpkin seeds. I’ve had success with that in the past too, but I find liquid watercolors to be a little easier. If you give it a try, let me know. 🙂

      Reply
  12. paula says

    August 2, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    This in not “art” this is a craft. It teaches colors, strengthens fine motor skills, teaches following directions. BUT, every child’s would look basically the same, so not art.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      August 2, 2022 at 2:02 pm

      I disagree. If you read the post, you’ll see that the kids are the ones who came up with the idea to use the seeds for tree leaves. And you would have also read the directions, “Then basically explain that the kids can use the materials to create whatever art they’d like to. Depending on your preferences, you could also encourage the children to grab some additional materials. That’s really about it in terms of directions.” You would have also read that different kids made different things with the seeds. But it appears you only left a comment based on looking at a picture or two.

      Reply
  13. carol says

    September 4, 2022 at 11:09 am

    I used food coloring and the colors looked really bad and ugly. They were not really rich with color. So my next step is to try liquid watercolors. I hope it makes a difference in the brightness of the colors. I really want to do this project with my students.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 4, 2022 at 12:42 pm

      I’m sorry the food coloring didn’t work. Yes, definitely give the liquid watercolors a try! I have much better luck with them (although I did accidentally over-do it once and had some washed out colors, but the kids didn’t care – but just that once). Let me know how it goes!!!

      Reply
    • Dashiell L Williford-Metcalf says

      October 19, 2022 at 10:29 pm

      yes, I really love this activity tried it last year and am now in another school program and about to share it with my 3-year-olds. The only thing is with food coloring it stayed wet and sticky so yes worked better with watercolors

      Reply
      • Mary Catherine says

        October 21, 2022 at 1:24 pm

        That’s what I’ve found out now, too! Thanks for sharing your experience, Dashiell!! 🙂

        Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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