Sammy is a collector of ‘treasures’ – as I believe most 3 year olds are.  Lately on our walks he has been finding and collecting pine cones.  We found some great big beautiful ones yesterday, so decided they would be perfect for pine cone crafts for kids!  We know some great “5 Little” Halloween poems, so decided to match them up.

These pine cone crafts are so easy.  We made 5 little ghosts and 5 little pumpkins (well, 4 little pumpkins and one great big Mama – which I have been told by my facebook friends, more resembles an octopus or starfish!).

Pine Cone Crafts for kids: 5 Little Ghosts

To make these ghosts, Sammy simply painted the pine cones white (we used a nice thick acrylic paint).  We then added black paint for eyes and mouths.  I will hang them up in the tree, once the novelty of playing with them has worn off a bit!

We have been using the poem 5 Little Ghosts to practice counting and rhyming with these cute Pine Cone Ghosts

Five little ghosts dressed all in white, were scaring each other on Halloween night.

“Boo!” said the first one, “I’ll catch you!”

“Wooo” said the second, “I don’t care if you do!”

The third ghost said, “You can’t run away from me.”

And the fourth one said, “I’ll scare everyone I see!”

Then the fifth one said, “It’s time to disappear!”

“Happy Halloween, we will see you next year”

Pine Cone Crafts for Kids: 5 Little Pumpkins

We also made some cute little pumpkins from our pine cones.  Madeline painted them orange, added black paint for the eyes and mouth, and hot glued a curled pipe cleaner for the stem.  I told her I would make one big one, so she just made 4.

For the Big Mama Pumpkin, I hot glued the pine cones on a paper plate in a circle  (thin points in to the middle).  Then Sammy painted them orange, with one half pine cone green for the stem.  He also painted stones white and black for eyes and a piece of tree bark black for the mouth.

I thought it looked so cute!  But neither Madeline or John agreed with me that it looked like a pumpkin – they both thought it looked like a starfish.  Sammy and I stand by it though – a very cute (perhaps a bit abstract) Jack-o-Lantern!

We have been using these 5 Little Pumpkins with this poem:

Five little pumpkins
Sitting on a gate.
The first one said,
“Oh, my it’s getting late!”
The second one said,
“There are witches in the air!”
The third one said,
“Well, I don’t care!”
The fourth one said,
“Let’s run and run and run!”
The fifth one said,
“I’m ready for some fun!”
Ooooo went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight.

These pine cone crafts for kids were tons of fun for my wee ones.  It was neat painting on such a different texture, and fun to think about different creatures to make from the pine cones (Madeline also made a Witch and Monster – and a Jalapeno Pepper)

The rhyming poems are so much fun and full of learning too.  I love hearing Sammy sing them (well, his version of them anyways) while he is playing independently.

Halloween will be here before we know it!  Have you done any Halloween crafts?