Earlier today I was racking my brain to come up with an easy pumpkin craft that was cheap and cute. I want to be festive but functional with an enterprise activity during Vocational Training. The students in my Autism Unit/SpEd class love fun!
After some trial and error… and two trips to the dollar store near me, I was all set!
Be inspired with this fun and easy pumpkin craft!
The students in your Autism unit can build some job skills AND sell these crafty goodies for a little profit!
Getting started does take a trip to the dollar store. I love that place! It is my inspiration for my DIY Dollar Store Vocational Task Boxes and my DIY Dollar Store STEM Builder Bins. When you’re a teacher on a budget, the dollar tree is gold!
STEP 1: Get To Shopping!
When you add up the shopping list, it is just ten bucks to start.
I was able to sell the twenty little pumpkins for a buck apiece. It was double the money! Best of all, it’s a great simple vocational task for student!You‘ll need the following Dollar Store items:
- One Package of Green Pipe Cleaner
- A Pack of Construction Paper
- A Package of Fall Colored Leaves
- 2 Fall Themed Plastic Table Cloths
- 5 Packages of Toilet Paper
You can also use the links to order from Amazon.
STEP 2: Cut the Plastic Tablecloth
Start by cutting the plastic tablecloth into 5 sections. The folds can be a guide. Cut about every third fold. Then you will cut those strips in half.
You end up with ten total pieces when you are all done. I marked with a sharpie where students should cut and let them do the work. It is okay if it isn’t perfectly straight, so don’t worry.
STEP 3: Tuck the Tablecloth into the Toilet Paper
Here is the super hard step, take a roll of TP and set it in the middle of the square of table cloth. Then gather up the corners and tuck it in… trying to make it look pretty and even.
STEP 4: Add a Pipe Cleaner Coil
The one part of retailers putting Christmas merchandise out in July is that you can buy an entire package of green sparkly pip cleaner instead of a mixed package that leaves you will colors you can’t use.
I had students wrap the cleaner around a marker since it was a little fatter and I had them available in the classroom. Ends up a pretty good size. Once it is coiled, tuck it in to the top of the TP.
STEP 5: Tuck Some Leaves & Construction Paper
You can purchase the leaves on the vine in the floral section, or with the fall decor you can find a package of fall colored leaves. Students picked two and tucked them into the top.
You can decide to use a dab of glue to hold them in place, but we just tucked them in. Once we rolled a quarter page of construction paper into a little stem, tucking it into the top held the leaves in for us, so that is the route we went in. Path of least resistance.
VOILA! Your Easy Pumpkin Craft!
All the step in this process were broken down assembly style for students. Someone who was great at cutting manned that station. Another student who was good at rolling paper handled the stems.
There was a rotation in who worked what station, but students worked at one station to mastery and then they trained their replacement.
I loved seeing students with Autism work on social skills with each other by teaching a friend. Those vocational work skills are so hard to teach and so important.
