A Cardboard Pumpkin Halloween Play Activity for Kids

To make your own build-a-jack-o-lantern cardboard pumpkins, you’ll need:

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Build-Your-Own-Jack-O-Lantern Cardboard Pumpkin Instructions

Sketch or download & print pumpkins and features.

For your jack-o-lantern features: Print out the desired feature pages onto heavy cardstock or cereal box sides that have been trimmed to fit your printer (you may want to run a test print through first to make sure your printer can handle the thickness of the box).

For your cardboard pumpkins: We printed our two large pumpkin template pages on copy paper, then traced the shapes onto squares of scrap cardboard.

You don’t have to print our templates – drawing imaginative jack-o-lantern features is a great creative exercise for kids all on its own! Sketch out your features and pumpkins onto cereal boxes or scrap cardboard and color or paint.

Cut out your cardboard pumpkins and features.

Choose which features you might like to put on your pumpkins and cut them all out. The more you cut out, the more faces you’ll be able to make!

Color or paint your cardboard pumpkin cutouts and features.

Use scissors to cut out all of your features and pumpkins, then paint or color any way you’d like. Give ample time to dry if necessary.

Add velcro dots to your cutout pumpkins and features.

We added small velcro dots to our pumpkins and features so we could design jack-o-lantern, mix-and-match pieces, and then use them for play. If you’re making these for younger kids, they add a nice sensory/fine motor skill development element as well!

You can use adhesive velcro dots, but we found that ours needed just the tiniest dab of hot glue to adhere permanently to the cardboard (especially the smaller elements).

Design cardboard jack-o-lanterns and play!

That’s all there is to it! You can cut out as many pieces or pumpkin shapes as you like to build your own adorable jack-o-lanterns over and over again!

10 Ways to Use Your Cardboard Pumpkins for More Kids’ Halloween Play and Learning Activities

From sensory exploration and dramatic play to math lessons and storytelling, these cardboard creations offer endless opportunities to engage children’s imaginations and curiosity…

1. Explore Emotions through Pumpkin Face-Building

As you mentioned, kids can explore different emotions by creating various jack-o-lantern faces. They can then discuss how each face makes them feel and relate it to real-life scenarios where they felt those emotions.

2. Go on a Jack-O-Lantern Scavenger Hunt!

Print out two sets of pumpkins and features. Create one set of cardboard pumpkins, and use the second set of paper sheets to create some funny-faced jack-o-lanterns kids can search for. Hide the different cardboard pumpkins around a room, the house, or even in your yard.

Alternatively, you can provide descriptions of the features, and have kids search for the various jack-o-lantern face parts. Once they find them, they can then assemble them on their cardboard pumpkins.

3. Use Cardboard Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween Fine Motor Skill Practice

The cutting, painting, and sticking this project employs is already a mini boot camp for fine motor skills. Adding embellishments like stickers, googley eyes, or tying on a string of beads can further challenge their pincer grip and precision. Even the act of attaching features with glue or tape requires a level of dexterity.

4. Make it a Jack-O-Lantern Storytelling Opportunity

Once created, each of these little pumpkins will come alive with a personality of its own. Embrace the imaginative spirit with some Halloween storytelling.

You can use popular songs, movies, or other references for inspiration…” Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate…or a table, or a classroom floor…and what happened next?” Let the kids bring their pumpkin characters to life with epic tales of Halloween adventure. Who needs a campfire when you’ve got cardboard pumpkins?

5. Create a Halloween Pumpkin Counting and Sorting Game

Use handfuls of features, plus a few cardboard pumpkins for easy math lessons. Count ’em, sort ’em, categorize ’em.

You can quickly turn these little jacks into a number game for early learners by asking them to use a specific number of features, count all the features they’ve used on a collection of pumpkins, count specific features, or add and subtract cardboard pumpkins from a “patch.”

6. Practice Color Recognition with Cardboard Pumpkins

Help kids explore the color wheel with their pumpkin creations! Afterall all, why stick to orange when you can create a rainbow of gorgeous gourds??

By painting the pumpkins and their features, children can learn about different colors and how they can be mixed to create new ones. Or they can explore color palettes by using features in a variety of colors on multi-hued pumpkins.

7. Turn Your Pumpkins into a Sensory Activity

Cardboard, paint, velcro – we already have the basics for a sensory smorgasbord. Add to the fun by covering a pumpkin with bubble wrap or tin foil. Use fuzzy fabric scraps or painted sandpaper for features.

Let the little ones explore different textures by building up features and faces using pumpkin spice playdough on their pumpkins. Tie small jingle bells to the stems of your pumpkins for sound stimulation.

8. Use Your Pumpkins to Learn about Symmetry

Teach kids about the concept of symmetry using the cutout features. Cut the features in half, laying out the face halves on a pumpkin. Invite kids to choose from the features to create the mirror image and finish the faces.

9. Make Cardboard Pumpkin Decorations

Transform everyday spaces into enchanting Halloween hideaways. Invite kids to collaborate on a BIG playroom or classroom cardboard pumpkin patch that will add an air of handmade autumn magic to any corner.

9. Put on a Show With Easy Pumpkin Stick Puppets

Turning these cardboard pumpkins into stick puppets is a piece of cake! Once the kids have crafted their cardboard pumpkins with all their desired features, they simply need to attach a popsicle stick, wooden dowel, or twig to the back of each pumpkin.

They can use strong tape or a hot glue gun (with adult supervision) to secure the stick. Voila! They’ve got themselves a festive jack-o-lantern stick puppet fit for a Halloween puppet show spectacular!

10. Use for Fall Dramatic Play Props

Welcome to the pumpkin shop! Or the haunted pumpkin patch! Or the pumpkin haunted house! Add a dash of imagination along with a few simple props (think hay bales, leaves, a hanging moon and star cutouts, a pumpkin patch sign, small rakes, fairy lights, a cauldron, a witch’s hat or brooms) and the dramatic play possibilities are endless!

More Fall DIYs and Play Activities for Kids

For a few more seasonal “build-your-own” crafts, be sure to visit our build-a-felt-turkey DIY  and felt fall rainbow tree tutorial.

Ideas for Kids’ Halloween Fun

Here for the boos? We have Halloween covered with this adorable free printable Halloween doodle book, some super hip upcycled costume ideas, a roundup of our fav modern no-carve pumpkins, and even a recipe (and ghost stickers!) for healthy homemade Ecto-Cooler!