Our recent pumpkin explorations led to this FUN fall process art for preschoolers.  The kiddos first enjoyed taking apart mini pumpkins, and then scooped out the seeds.  From there, we decided to use them to paint!

I’ve painted with pumpkins in the past, but I wanted to try something a little different this year.  The students really love activities that activate their sense of smell, and they had a blast with our spicy apple painting, so I decided to go that route here.  I set out mini pumpkins, orange tempera paint, and pumpkin pie spice.  Then I let the children have fun exploring the process of pumpkin painting!

I liked seeing the different way the students used the pumpkins to paint.  Some painted by stamping the cutoff top of the pumpkin onto the paper.

Others took the whole pumpkins and stamped with the bottoms.

The one that seemed to be the most fun to me was rolling the pumpkins on their sides.  As one of the kids said, “Hey, it looks just like footprints!  Except it’s not.  It’s like pumpkin footprints!”

Once the kids painted with the pumpkins, I let them add the pumpkin pie spice.  Oh, they just loved this part!  Some of them added just a touch of the spice, while others went a little wild with it.  Either way, it made the artwork (and the classroom) smell delicious!

This was such a fun experience for the kiddos, and that’s what process art is meant to me . . . FUN!  Each of the children used mini pumpkins, orange paint, and pumpkin pie spice.  Yet each of the kids made a completely different piece of art.  Each of them also got something different out of the experience.  Some spent a lot of time exploring the sensory aspect to it — adding the spices, then smelling them, then adding more.  Others were very focused on watching the prints made by the pumpkins.  Still others just loved getting messy and playing with the paint.

For more information about the importance of process art for children, check out Debbie Clement’s “Children’s Art: Process versus Product” and Learn Play Imagine’s “The Importance of Process Art for Children”.

Do you enjoy process art with your children/students?

A Full Week of Pumpkin Lesson Plans

Continue learning about pumpkins with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provide different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

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Home Preschool Pumkin Theme Lesson Plans (in our shop or on TpT)

Preschool Classroom Pumpkin Theme Lesson Plans (in our shop or on TpT)