Play School: Pumpkins

This week was another fun week in Play School. M taught and the topic was pumpkins.

Concepts: Where pumpkins come from; some of their uses

Activity: M helped Tempe and little B make two cute pumpkin crafts (I wish I had pictures!). One was a construction paper pumpkin with a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other. The kids glued on the elements to make the faces. The other craft was a small orange plastic bag stuffed with newspaper to make a pumpkin and with green leaves tied at the top to make the stem. It was so cute and a great way to teach children about recycling and using things they find in nature for their projects!

Books: Again, I slacked this week and didn't check out any pumpkin books. But here is a list, courtesy my library website: Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie by Jill Esbaum; How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara; Pumpkin Hill by Elizabeth Spurr; Pumpkins by Ken Robbins; Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Diane Ochiltree; and Pumpkinhead by Eric Rohmann.

Songs: Ring around the pumpkin, pocket full of nuts. Leaves, leaves, they all fall down! March around the pumpkin... Stomp around the pumpkin... Tip-toe around the pumpkin... Jump around the pumpkin

Snack: I don't think M gave them a snack, but a few ideas include Jack-o'Lantern grilled cheese sandwiches, pumpkin cookies, or pumpkin pudding (mix a few tablespoons of solid pack pumpkin into vanilla pudding).

Field Trip: Today we took another fun family field trip to a pumpkin patch, where Tempe and Helena each picked out a pumpkin. It also had a free kids' hay maze that the girls loved running through! We had a fun time and it brought back memories of when my mom would take all 5 of us kids to Kerrigan Farm, where we would take a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard, and finish with fresh apple cider. Mmmm!