Polka-dot pumpkin
Polka Dot Pumpkin · Easy carve, ages 5 and up, with a grown-up
Dots, dots, dots! Lots of little lights.
🎃 Easy carveages 5 and up, with a grown-up
You need
- a carving pumpkin
- the printed stencil and tape
- a big spoon or an ice-cream scoop
- a pumpkin poker or a thick pin (with a grown-up)
- a small pumpkin saw (grown-up)
- a serrated knife for the lid (grown-up)
- a drill and a drill bit (grown-up)
- an LED tea light
🖨️ Print the stencil
For a medium pumpkin, about 9 to 11 inches tall.
How we carve it, together
- Grown-up
1. Cut the lid
A grown-up cuts a lid round the stem, slanting in, so it can't fall through. (A hole in the bottom works too.)
- You
2. Scoop it out
Scoop out the seeds and the stringy goop with a big spoon. Scrape the front wall thin, about as thick as your finger. Save the seeds!
🌰 Roast the seeds in the Kitchen - Together
3. Poke the dots
Tape the stencil on the front. Poke dots along every black line with a pumpkin poker, a grown-up beside you. Then take the paper off.
- Grown-up
4. Drill the holes
A grown-up drills the round holes with a drill bit, straight in.
- You
5. Lights out!
Put an LED tea light inside and turn the lights out. Never a candle: an LED stays cool and can't start a fire.
- ✋ A grown-up does every cut. Kids draw, scoop, poke the dots with a grown-up beside them, and light the LED.
- 💡 Light it with an LED tea light, never a candle. An LED stays cool and can't start a fire.
More pumpkins
For grown-ups
No face at all: rows of round holes all over the pumpkin. A grown-up drills them with a drill bit, then the LED makes a pumpkin full of little lights.
This is a free printable pumpkin carving stencil: choose Small, Medium or Big above and print at 100%. Black is cut away, grey is scraped thin (not through), dots are poked or drilled, and a white gap across a line is a bridge to leave. Children scoop, poke and light; you cut. The AAP's Halloween safety tips say the same, and suggest a flashlight or glow stick rather than a candle.
More: every pumpkin design and stencil, the pumpkin face maker and pumpkin painting ideas for kids.