With a trip to the pumpkin patch planned, last week was the perfect week to focus on pumpkins. When I was planning the week I immediately thought of activity after activity involving pumpkin seeds and then branched out from there. We had a lot of fun and the pumpkin patch was definitely a hit! Carter loved it!
Listed below are the objectives I am
focusing on for the themed weeks. The highlighted objectives are ones
Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.
Sort objects based on size or color/Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle.
Play make believe.
Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
Follow simple instructions.
Activities/Movement:
I had a bag full of green and orange die cut pumpkins I made and used with a math activity in the classroom. I pulled them out and we used them to sort and make patterns. Carter is getting so good at sorting and it was almost like he was thinking, "Mommy there are only 2 colors, this is way too easy!" I had him say the color of the pumpkin as he sorted it and he did most of the time. He made quick work of sorting the pumpkins and then I showed him how to make a simple AB pattern. I could tell he didn't understand what I was doing but thought it looked pretty cool.
After sitting on the potty in the morning he didn't want to put his pants back on!
I painted some pumpkin seeds 3 different colors and had Carter sort them based on color. He sorted the seeds and then wanted to play with them so I threw them in with the other seeds for some of our other activities. He was cracking me up doing things differently than he ever has before. I showed him a blue one and asked him where it went. He took it and put it over by itself and then moved the rest of the blue seeds over with it instead of putting the seed I gave him in the original blue pile. It's fun to see him thinking and changing things up. He definitely understands the concept if he's able to group items of the same color in different ways.
Sorting the seeds.
Since Carter is doing so well sorting items based on color, I thought I'd throw in sorting based on size. I cut pumpkins out of orange construction paper. I made 3 small, 3 medium, and 3 large pumpkins. I tried to make the size difference really obvious, but I felt like I could've made the size difference between the small and medium pumpkins a bit more extreme. I started the activity the same way I originally started when we began sorting items based on color. I showed Carter a small pumpkin and told him it was small, then I set it down to start the small pile. I did the same thing with a medium and a large pumpkin. Then I would pick a pumpkin up from the pile, tell him which size it was, and place it on the correct pile. I sorted all the pumpkins a few times before offering for him to try. He really wasn't interested and just shuffled the pumpkins around so I didn't press it since it's a new skill. I never got a picture of him watching me sort since I was the one sorting, so I just took a picture of the sorted pumpkins to show what they looked like.
Carter loves to put things inside objects and dump them back out. Going with that I decided to pull out a Halloween pumpkin bucket to put toys in and dump them out. We used his monster finger puppets that are different colors. I would ask Carter to put a certain color monster in the pumpkin. When all the monsters were in the pumpkin I'd ask him to dump them all back out. We also counted how many monsters there were as he put them in the pumpkin and we counted how many there were of each color. He had a blast with this game and after a while of working on colors and counting I let him do his own thing dumping the monsters in and then pouring them out. I plan on doing this activity again during Halloween week since he had so much fun!
Putting monster finger puppets in the pumpkin.
I used the same pumpkin bucket to practice with eyes, nose, head, and mouth. I asked Carter where the pumpkin's eyes were and he pointed to them. Then he very excitedly pointed to his own eyes as well. I asked him where each feature was on the pumpkin and he pointed to it and then pointed to his same feature. He was so proud of himself and enjoyed a different spin on pointing out features/body parts.
I saw these really cute pumpkins made out of an egg carton and just had to do it with Carter. He helped me paint the egg carton which was the styrofoamy kind rather than the paper kind. Then I found some of Ty's old golf tees, but they were too big and hung out the bottom of the pumpkin so I just painted pumpkin seeds green and used them instead. Carter and I counted the pumpkins and then he was quick to grab them and pull the pumpkin seed stems out of each one. I had filled a container with pumpkin seeds for him to play with and he put the seeds in the container with the rest of them. He had a blast with the pumpkin seeds, putting them in a yogurt container, dumping them out, running his hands through them. Then Harper came over and started to eat them. Carter thought it was hilarious and started feeding her, so I put them away. The egg carton pumpkins didn't interest him and he didn't play with them much at all. I was glad I hadn't put too much work into them to make them look adorable like the ones I'd seen originally.
Pulling out the pumpkin seed stems.
Pouring pumpkin seeds out of a yogurt container.
I cut a large circle out of orange paper. Then I cut out triangles for eyes and a nose and I cut out a couple of different shaped mouths. Carter and I sat on the floor and I showed him how we could take the shapes and make faces on the pumpkin. I talked about the shapes as I did it. For example, "We can use this triangle to make a nose." Then we moved to our craft table and I gave Carter a glue stick. I helped him put glue on each piece and he chose where he wanted to glue it. I reminded him to put the sticky side down. He decided his pumpkin needed 2 mouths!
Pleased with his finished product.
Thursday night when Carter painted his pumpkin, Jeremy prepared his for carving. He cut the top off his pumpkin and Carter and I helped him pull the insides out. Carter didn't enjoy pulling the "guts" out as much as I had thought he would. We then went through and separated the seeds out because I had lots of grand plans for those seeds!
Ready to help pull the "guts" and seeds out of the pumpkin.
Craft:
In the afternoon before we went to the pumpkin patch we made a pumpkin craft to get Carter excited about the pumpkin patch. I had him finger paint a paper plate with orange paint. Then we made a handprint with green paint. When they were both dry I glued the handprint to the plate to give the pumpkin a stem. Carter loves his pumpkin!
Just like last year we bought a pumpkin for Carter to paint. See pictures from last year's experience here. He wasn't nearly as into it as he was last year. He spent about 3 minutes painting his pumpkin, 3 minutes painting his body, and the rest of the time running around the backyard touching stuff including the back door. It still turned out really cute and I even got him to make handprints on the pumpkin!
Messy boy after painting his pumpkin.
Trying to re-interest him in painting his pumpkin.
Before painting Carter's pumpkin, we compared his pumpkin to Ty and Jeremy's pumpkins. I asked him which one he thought was the fattest. He pointed at one of the pumpkins. We used yarn to measure around the pumpkin and cut it where it started to overlap. Then we used the yarn to measure the 2 other pumpkins and saw that it overlapped on both of them, so Carter did in fact choose the fattest pumpkin. Then I asked him which one he thought was the tallest and we did the same thing to check his guess. Again he was right and I wondered if he just happened to point at the correct pumpkin both times. I just realized I put this activity in the craft section, but I don't want to move it and have to re-upload all the pictures so I'm leaving it.
Measuring around the pumpkin.
Deciding which pumpkin he thought was the tallest.
Measuring the height of the pumpkin.
Once we had all the seeds from Jeremy's pumpkin dried and gathered, we made a couple of crafts with them. The first project we did was a seed painting. My plan was to dip seeds in paint and use them to make marks on the paper the texture and size of the seed. I showed Carter what to do and he loved the idea. He would plop the seed on the paper and then slide it around to make lines on the paper. He took my idea and made it even better. The seeds didn't make a defined outline of their shapes like I'd thought they would on the paper, they more so just made a blob. Carter's way of doing it made the picture more colorful and interesting.
Pushing the seed around on the paper.
Asking for his next color.
The finished product.
After we'd used the seeds dipped in paint to make a picture we glued seeds to a piece of paper. I thought Carter would just throw them around on the paper and not make much of a design. That's exactly what he did. He'd put some glue on the paper or I'd help him put some glue down and then he'd grab a handful of seeds and toss them on the glue. When he's older I think it would be fun to have him make a shape out of glue and then fill it in with pumpkin seeds. We used the painted seeds from our craft earlier and they looked pretty cool!
Special Snack:
Carter and I made pumpkin bread right before lunch one day. That way it could bake and then cool before he woke up from his nap and he could enjoy it as a snack. We used a simple recipe I found here. As always he enjoyed helping. At one point he looked down at all the flour in the bowl and decided to grab a handful and throw it. We ended up with flour all over the counter, his face, my computer (which we were using for the recipe, and in the sink.
Make Believe:
We read the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer and then pretended to plant and care for our own pumpkin seeds. I turned to the page in the book where they planted the seeds and we pretended to dig up our carpet to plant the seeds. Then Carter dumped seeds on our spot to plant them and I gave him an empty cup so he could pretend to water them. He enjoyed watering them and made noises that sounded like water spraying as he did it.
Planting the seeds.
Watering the seeds.
Songs:
One of my favorite songs to sing each year with my class was always "I'm a Little Pumpkin". It is sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot" and has actions to go with it. I sang it to Carter a couple times, showing him the actions and then he started doing some of the actions along with me. Of course when I pulled out my phone to record him doing the actions he just danced around instead of doing actions, but he was still very cute! We also listened to a couple songs on Youtube.
"5 Little Pumpkins on a Gate"
"That's How a Pumpkin Grows"
Field Trip/Interactive Experience:
Our pumpkin week was scheduled around a trip to the pumpkin patch. We were supposed to go in the morning, but when we realized the pumpkin patch was open until 8pm and Ty could go with us we switched to an evening trip. We went to a pumpkin patch with inflatable toys, pumpkin games, tractor rides, a corn maze, face painting, hay bale climbs, and animals to look at. When we first arrived before we even entered the pumpkin patch there were hay bales, scarecrows, and pumpkins decorating the entrance. Carter took off squealing and running when he saw the pumpkins. Ty and I laughed that we may not even need to pay to go inside. We decided not to buy a pumpkin there and go with a cheaper one elsewhere and that was fine with Carter. He enjoyed all the activities as well as picking up and carrying miniature pumpkins around. I was impressed that he sat still enough to get his face painted. After it was painted we told him not to touch it so it could dry. He touched it once and then never did again. By the time we left he wanted to be carried because he was so tired. The whole time we were there he was in overdrive, running from place to place and squealing in excitement. I just grabbed the camera and not the camera bag and we ran out of battery while we were there so I ended up taking most the pictures with my phone.
Before we even paid and entered the pumpkin patch.
Playing with the decorations as you enter the pumpkin patch.
He took off running once we got inside.
Posing as Charlie Brown.
He LOVED playing in the corn. It was one of his favorite things.
Ready for a ride while being pulled by a tractor.
Getting his face painted.
Putting mini pumpkins in a pumpkin bucket.
Climbing the hay bales.
Pumpkin bowling.
Riding a tire horse.
Books:
When I got on our library's website to request holds on pumpkin books I was not surprised to find many of them were checked out and there were even multiple holds on some of the books. Luckily I had a decent number of pumpkin books from my school collection and I was able to request a few books from the library. It is definitely a popular time to be reading about pumpkins! I put more holds on books than I normally would have because I figured most of the books wouldn't arrive until after our pumpkin week was over. When Carter and I went to the library to pick up our books on hold I was shocked to see how many books there were! We ended up with so many books they didn't all fit in our library bag and I had to pile some into the wagon! I was surprised his favorite book from the week was one I had from school, Pumpkin Soup. The first time he brought it to me requesting that I read it, I figured he wouldn't make it through much of the book. I was shocked when he not only made it all the way through the book, but wanted to read it again! The book is very cute and the 3 main characters are a cat, a duck, and a squirrel. But it is also pretty long, especially for a child Carter's age! He would bring it to me saying kitty. It was so cute. We read it so many times I actually got a little bit tired of it, but as I say that I kinda want to read it right now!
Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch by Mary Peterson and Jennifer Rofe
Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree
The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Sounded like a great week. I can imagine he didn't want to pull the guts out of the pumpkin, they feel funny and he doesn't like some things on his hands. He sure did have a good time at the pumpkin patch. I'm glad Ty got to go.
Sounded like a great week. I can imagine he didn't want to pull the guts out of the pumpkin, they feel funny and he doesn't like some things on his hands. He sure did have a good time at the pumpkin patch. I'm glad Ty got to go.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, I didn't think about that. I just thought about how much I loved doing it as a kid!
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