Kid’s Craft Corner – What To Do With Your Halloween Pumpkin

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I can’t really remember what we do with our pumpkin after Halloween. Last year we fried up the pumpkin – that was fun.  Before that I don’t remember – I think we leave it on our stoop until it is time to throw it away or put in your compost bin.  I came across a picture of a pumpkin being used as a bird feeder and thought – ok we can do that and what a great way to use all of the pumpkin.

This year we decided to not carve our pumpkin, couldn’t tell you why, but there it is.  Even if you carved your pumpkin you can make this bird feeder, with much of the work already being done.  You can fill the bottom with some bird seed.

This is a great activity to do with your kid (s) – but cutting the pumpkin in half is a job for an adult.  Pretty much everything else can be done by the child or children.  Depending on where you want to hang it, that may also need some help from a taller adult.

Pumpkin Bird Feeder

Items Needed

Pumpkin
Sharp knife
Spoon or scooper to take the “guts” out
Pumpkin seeds
Small sticks
Twine
Glue gun (optional)

1. Take a walk around your neighborhood and collect some small sticks.  Since we just had a storm – the girls went into the back yard and were able to find many sticks in a very short period of time!

2. Cut the bottom off the pumpkin.

3. Scoop out the ” guts” of the pumpkin, leaving a 1/2″ or more thick wall.

4. Sort and rinse the guts off the pumpkin seeds and set them aside.

5. Cut a groove around the pumpkin wall, a fork works really well.

6. Cut out holes around the outside of the pumpkin to place the small sticks/twigs – these will be the perches for the birds to sit on and enjoy the bounty.

7. Insert the pumpkin seeds in the groove. The seeds kept popping out of our hands and the groove – I guess they just didn’t want to be bird food – but we just kept working on it! Just skip this step if you are using an already carved pumpkin.

8.  Cut 4 pieces of twine, making sure that they are long enough to go around the pumpkin and use to hang from a tree branch.  Tie the pieces of twine together and tack at the bottom of the pumpkin.  We tacked by using the glue gun.

9. Hang from a tree branch by tying the twine around a branch.

10. Fill the pumpkin with bird seed – bon appetite little birdies!

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