🎃 The Pumpkin Patch
Easy pumpkin carving ideas and free stencils, from no-carve to tricky
Pick a pumpkin face! Tap Lights out to see it glow. A grown-up does the cutting. You scoop, poke and light it up.
- Make your own face Eyes, nose, mouth: you pick!
- No-carve painting ideas No knife at all
- How we carve, together Who does what
- Pumpkin math Count the seeds in tens
52 pumpkin designs
Classic grin🎃 Easy carve
Toothy triangles🎃 Easy carve
Sleepy face🎃 Easy carve
Surprised face🎃 Easy carve
Winking face🎃 Easy carve
Kissy face🎃 Easy carve
Wiggly smile🎃 Easy carve
One-eyed monster🎃 Easy carve
Heart eyes🎃 Easy carve
Star eyes🎃 Easy carve
Polka-dot pumpkin🎃 Easy carve
Three-eyed alien🎃 Easy carve
Mister Moustache🎃 Easy carve
Silly tongue🦇 Medium
Cute vampire🦇 Medium
Cat face🦇 Medium
Peabody the owl🦇 Medium
Flying bat🦇 Medium
Friendly ghost🦇 Medium
Spider on a web🦇 Medium
Pumpkin in a witch's hat🦇 Medium
Pirate with a patch🦇 Medium
Robot🦇 Medium
Friendly monster🦇 Medium
Skeleton grin🦇 Medium
Laughing face🦇 Medium
BOO!🦇 Medium
Your first letter🦇 Medium
Moon and stars🦇 Medium
Mummy peeking out🦇 Medium
Dinosaur chomp🦇 Medium
Bats across the moon🌕 Tricky
Haunted house🌕 Tricky
Cat on the moon🌕 Tricky
Owl in a twisty tree🌕 Tricky
Ghost waving in the moon🌕 Tricky
Ghost family in the moon🌕 Tricky
Candy corn stripes🖌️ No-carve
Mummy wraps🖌️ No-carve
Galaxy pumpkin🖌️ No-carve
Unicorn pumpkin🖌️ No-carve
Googly-eye monster🖌️ No-carve
Black cat in the moon🖌️ No-carve
Tic-tac-toe pumpkin🖌️ No-carve
Sunflower🖌️ No-carve
Ladybug🖌️ No-carve
Painted owl🖌️ No-carve
Rainbow pumpkin🖌️ No-carve
Spider web pumpkin🖌️ No-carve
Painted ghost🖌️ No-carve
Silly marker face🖌️ No-carve
Pumpkin in a paper witch's hat🖌️ No-carve
How we carve, together
- Grown-up
1. Cut the lid
A grown-up cuts a lid round the stem, slanting in, so it can't fall through.
- You
2. Scoop it out
Scoop out the seeds and the goop with a big spoon. Save the seeds!
🌰 Roast the seeds in the Kitchen - Together
3. Poke the dots
Tape the stencil on. Poke dots along the black lines with a pumpkin poker, a grown-up beside you.
- Grown-up
4. Cut along the dots
A grown-up cuts along the dots with a small pumpkin saw and pushes the pieces out.
- You
5. Lights out!
Put an LED tea light inside. Never a candle. Lights out!
- ✋ 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.
- 🖌️ Under 5? Try a no-carve pumpkin: paint, markers and stickers, no knife at all.
Pumpkin math
Count the seeds in tens
Tap a seed in. Fill a ten, then start the next ten.
About how many seeds are inside a pumpkin?
How many seeds? Count the full tens, then the ones.
A carving pumpkin weighs about as much as…
Who is heavier: you, or a carving pumpkin?
More Halloween fun
- Spooky Kitchen Banana ghosts, dirt cups and more treats to make.
- Haunted Workshop Flappy bats, bubbly cauldrons and dancing ghosts.
- Trick-or-Treat Street Knock on doors, answer, and fill your bag.
- Halloween puzzles Word searches, mazes, bingo and a hunt.
- Halloween coloring Bats, cats and friendly ghosts to color.
- Rainy Day Box Fun things to do inside on a wet day.
- Halloween stories Spooky-cute stories to read.
- Halloween jokes Jokes and riddles. Tap to see the answer!
- Halloween HQ Everything Halloween in one place
For grown-ups: easy pumpkin carving ideas and free stencils
Every design here is a free pumpkin carving stencil you can print at home or in a classroom: 37 jack-o'-lantern faces and pictures from easy (big triangles and circles) to tricky (silhouettes in the moon held in by bridges), and 15 no-carve pumpkin painting ideas for the youngest. Each one prints at real size for a small, medium or big pumpkin, with the cut parts in black, the parts to scrape in grey, the lid dashed and the bridges marked. The pumpkin face maker turns a child's own eyes, nose and mouth into a stencil.
Kids do the safe, fun parts: drawing, scooping, poking the dots with you beside them, and switching on the light. You do every cut. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests the same: small children don't carve, they draw the face and a grown-up cuts, and a flashlight or glow stick is safer than a candle (AAP Halloween safety tips).
What age can kids carve pumpkins?
Young children shouldn't use a knife at all: they can draw the face with a marker, scoop out the seeds and poke the stencil's dots with a grown-up beside them, and a grown-up does the cutting. The American Academy of Pediatrics gives the same advice. Under 5, a no-carve pumpkin (paint, markers, stickers) is the easy way in.
How do I use a pumpkin carving stencil?
Print it at 100% (not 'fit to page') in the size that suits your pumpkin. Tape it to the front, poke dots along every black line, take the paper off, and cut along the dots with a small pumpkin saw. Grey parts are scraped, not cut through. Little strips marked as bridges are left, so a middle piece doesn't fall out.
Should I put a candle in a jack-o'-lantern?
Use an LED tea light or a flashlight instead. They stay cool and can't start a fire, which matters with costumes and little hands nearby.
What can kids do with the pumpkin seeds?
Rinse them, dry them and roast them with a grown-up into a crunchy snack, or count them first: put them in groups of ten and see how many tens your pumpkin had.
Are these stencils free?
Yes. Every design, stencil and the face maker are free to use and print at home or in a classroom, with no sign-up. Nothing a child makes leaves the device.
More to make: Halloween activities for kids, easy recipes in the Kitchen, builds and experiments in the Workshop, puzzles in the Activity Book and colouring pages.