Pumpkin Spice Playdough Recipe

Why not explore pumpkin STEM and sensory play this season with this homemade pumpkin pie playdough recipe and fun activities? Add this to your preschool pumpkin activities this season.

Pumpkin Spice Playdough Recipe

This is a cooked playdough recipe. However, find a fantastic no-cook playdough recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 Tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional but makes the playdough smell amazing!)
• 1 cup of water
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• Orange food coloring

Instructions:

STEP 1: Add the flour, salt, and cream of tartar to a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to mix well. Set aside.

STEP 2: Add the water and vegetable oil to a medium saucepan. Heat until boiling and then remove from the stove top.

STEP 3: Add the flour mixture and orange food coloring to the hot water and stir continuously until a stiff ball of dough forms.

STEP 4. Remove the dough from the pan and place on your work center. Allow the playdough mixture to cool for 5 minutes.

STEP 5:  Knead the dough until it is soft and pliable (about 3-4 minutes).

Free Pumpkin Playdough Mats

Make pumpkin pie with these free pumpkin playdough mats!

How To Make Pumpkins From Playdough

Supplies:

• DIY orange pumpkin-scented playdough (recipe above)
• Pumpkin shaped cookie cutters
• Pumpkin seeds or corn kernels
• Cinnamon sticks
• Green pipe cleaners
• Orange pom poms
• Green pom poms, buttons, Perler beads
• Mini play dough rolling pin
• Plastic knife
• Playdough Scissors
• Mini pie tins

Instructions:

STEP 1. Roll out the pumpkin scented playdough with a mini roller or flatten with the palm of your hand.

STEP 2. Use an pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter to cut out pumpkin shapes from the playdough.

STEP 3. Have your child use pom poms, Perler beads and buttons on the apples for hours of fun sensory play. Use green pipe cleaners or leaves for the apple stems.

Enjoy sensory play with an easy to set up pumpkin sensory bin!

More Things To Do With Pumpkin Playdough

1. Pumpkin Math

• Turn your playdough time into a counting activity and add dice! Roll and place the correct amount of items on the pumpkin!
• Make it a game and the first one to 20 wins!
• Add number playdough stamps and pair with items.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Roll A Jack O’Lantern Math Game

2. Pumpkin Fine Motor Play

Get kids to practice their fine motor skills with these simple ideas:

• Add a pair of kid-safe tweezers or tongs for picking up items to decorate pumpkins!
• Make a sorting activity. Roll out a pumpkin or two or three. Next, mix up the items such as buttons, poms, and kernels or seeds in a small container. Then, have the kids sort the items to the different pumpkins using the tweezers!
• Use kid-safe playdough scissors to practice cutting the playdough pumpkins into pieces.

3. Parts of a Pumpkin Activity

Have kids make all the parts of a pumpkin with the playdough and accessories! Check out this pumpkin investigation tray too!

Most importantly, talk about the parts of a pumpkin with your kids! What do they include?

You can talk about the skin or rind, the flesh, the stem, vine, tendrils, or leaves, and of course the seeds! How about those fibrous strands and pulp that can be a bit gooey? Of course, there are the ribs on the outside!

4. Pumpkin Playdough STEM Activities

• Turn playdough pumpkins into a STEM activity with the book 5 Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino! Challenge your kids to roll up 5 pumpkins out of playdough and build a structure for them to line up on like a fence. See our complete list of Pumpkin Book Activities.
• Challenge the kids to create a small, medium, and large pumpkin and put them in the correct order of size!
• Add toothpicks and roll up “mini pumpkins” out of the playdough and use them along with the toothpicks to create 2D and 3D shapes! Make a square pumpkin that looks like Spookley!

Get Your FREE Parts of a Pumpkin Printable!