Toddler Activity: Recycle Baby Food Jars into Pumpkins and Monsters

We have a lot of empty baby food jars stored away for crafts and recycling, and with fall and Halloween upon us I thought it would be fun to do a little seasonal craft with my three year old. We made these simple little pumpkin and monster jars together one afternoon and they were such a fun craft! You could fill these little guys with candy to give to friends, your child could store their treasures inside, or they’d be sweet candle holders. Here’s what we did:

We prepped our “work space” (the floor!) with a piece of craft paper and readied our supplies: tempera paints, paint brushes, and clean used baby food jars and their lids.

We protected our outfits with smocks and got ready for some serious Halloween craft time! My daughter wanted all of the colours on her jars, so that’s exactly what she did – painted blobs of all of the colours all over the outside of her jar and on top of the lids.

I wanted to make pumpkins out of the baby food jars, so I painted the jars orange and the lids green.

Finally, we simply had fun with some craft supplies we had on hand and embellished the jars once they were dry. We tied pipe cleaners in vine shapes (for the pumpkins) and antennae shapes (for the monsters) around the necks of the jars, glued on googly eyes to the fronts, and added mouths with a permanent marker. My daughter had so much fun using a marker all by herself to make different mouth shapes: “This guy is confused! This guy is yelling!” This mini craft was a really fun way to fill up a cold afternoon.

Do you do any crafts with your little ones? What’s their favourite medium to play with?