Have some fun in this pumpkin patch of activities picked just for you!
- Cover a shoebox or tissue box with brown butcher paper. Cut ½ slits that are an inch apart in rows on the top of the box. Draw green “vines” connecting the openings and draw dots under each slit from 1 dot all the way to 10 dots. Glue felt pumpkin shapes or stickers to the tops of popsicle sticks. Write numerals from 1 to 10 on each pumpkin shape or sticker. Now, help your child count the dots on the pumpkin vine and push the correct numeral stick into the opening above the corresponding number of dots. This is a great fine-motor activity as well as practice with number recognition and counting.
- Draw a large pumpkin on a piece of white paper. Divide the pumpkin into sections using a black marker. Grab a few different colors of crayons and take a walk outside. Point out different textures along the walk- bark on trees, bumpy concrete sidewalks, smooth post on a mailbox- and have your child lay the pumpkin drawing on the surfaces and color each section with a different color crayon. The finished product is a patchwork of different environmental textures!
- First, let you child paint twelve paper plates using yellow and red paint. Pour
both colors into two tin pans. Have your child put one hand in the red paint and one hand in the yellow paint and then mix them together by spreading them all over the different plates. This will result in a variety of different shades of orange. After the plates dry, let your child watch as you draw different shapes of eyes, noses, and a mouths on the paper plates. Make sure that you draw pairs for each face. Then, flip the plates over and start playing a matching, memory game. Turn two plates over, if they match then the player gets to keep the pair. If they don’t match, the plates get turned back over and the next player will see if they can remember where the matches are!
Created exclusively for Books By The Bushel, LLC by Pamela B Connor, Ed.D