Clay Pumpkins

To celebrate the beginning of October we've been reading a few pumpkin themed books* and tried our hand at making our own clay pumpkins. Michaels had a fabulous sale on Sculpey clay a couple weeks back so I stocked up on some orange, green, and black. I thought pumpkins would be a great beginning clay activity since all you essentially have to do is roll "balls" and "snakes".

Our Supplies: green, orange, and black sculpey clay, small clay knife (optional), parchment paper  (optional), cookie sheet, and an oven preheated to 275'.

Step 1: I cut the orange clay in to small blocks and then the kids rolled it in to a pumpkin shape. This was hard work for their little hands but they enjoyed it. 

Step 2: I also cut the green clay in to small blocks and then the kids rolled it first in to a ball and then in to snakes/vines.

Step 3: Break off a small piece of green for each pumpkin and press it on to the top.

Step 4: If desired create a large vine on which to attach all your pumpkins. While Little Lady was creating her large vine it got accidentally twisted. We decided it it looked more realistic so everyone followed suit. 

Step 5: Use clay knife to cut creases in to pumpkins. 

Step 6: If desired press black clay until it's very thin and then cut out face shapes. Press shapes to on to pumpkins. 

Step 7: Bake creations in preheated oven for fifteen minutes.

When they were finished we decided to use the pumpkins to decorate our table's centerpiece dish. 

*If you are looking for some pumpkin themed books to share with our children I highly recommend It's a Fruit, It's a Vegtable, It's a Pumpkin for non-fiction and Too Many Pumpkins for fiction.

p.s. lots more great kid friendly ideas can be found at these link parties: Link and Learn, Made by Little Hands, Montessori Monday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Preschool Corner, For the Kids Fridays, and Show and Share Saturday.