Spin Painted Toddler Pumpkin Art with Free Printable

Last Updated on September 20, 2025 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Grab your salad spinner for this fun toddler pumpkin art activity. Comes with a free pumpkin printable!

Who knew that my salad spinner would get more use at school than at home!

Seriously, I love this thing.

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you’ve seen how we’ve made spiders, trees, and hearts using this nifty kitchen tool. But there are a few tips I’ve learned along the way, and will share those with you today.

If you’d like to see even more spin art, scroll down towards the end of this post!

CLICK HERE to see our classroom set up for the pumpkin theme!

Spin Painted Toddler Pumpkin Art with Free Printable

Table of Contents

Watch the Video

Supplies

Salad spinner (the OXO is my favorite)
Yellow washable tempera paint
Red washable tempera paint
Paper cut into a pumpkin shape OR you can use the free pumpkin printable I’ve included below.

Preparation

Cut your paper to fit inside the salad spinner. (If you are using my pumpkin printable, do a loose cut around it.)

Get your paint ready. I like to pour ours into plastic squeeze bottles.

Note: You might want to thin your paint a bit with some tap water. This helps the paint move more while the paper is spinning.

The Activity

When the paper is inside the salad spinner, squirt some of the red paint and some of the yellow paint on top of the paper.

Since I was standing right there, I let the children squeeze the paint. However, had I taken my eyes off of the activity they would have kept on going, emptying the entire bottle! So, if you do this, stay close.

Place the top on the spinner and show your children how to make to spin.

There are a lot of salad spinners out there, and they have different handles and buttons.

Of all the salad spinners we’ve used, my absolute favorite is the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner, shown in these photos.

First of all, I love the pump mechanism as opposed to those that require pulling latches or turning handles. It’s much less frustrating for toddlers to use.

They use the palms of their hands to pump the spinner. Great for building those fine motor skills!

Another plus is that it’s clear. One of the main reasons I like using a salad spinner is so that the children can actually SEE the colors mixing. This is one of the only spinners I’ve found that has a clear base AND a clear lid.