Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin

When I hopped over to I Heart Crafty Things (great preschool ideas!) the other day, I was so excited to see that Rachel had done some fun activities with her kids and the book “Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin” by Mary Serfozo. We had just returned that book to the library and my kids and I had loved it too. It has great rhyming text and the best descriptive words that made it fun to read over (and over and over) again.

So I decided to have a Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin day.

• Read “Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin” by Mary Serfozo. Available here.
• Mini Pumpkin Patch
  1. Every year I collect several mini pumpkins/squash/gourds from the store. Besides being fun for decorations, my kids love playing with them, sorting them and pretending to have their own mini pumpkin patch.
  2. Hands on! Feel the mini pumpkins … some are bumpy, some are smooooth.
  3. Compare the colors. My oldest naturally starts to sort them into like colors
  4. Describe them. You’ll seriously love the descriptions in the book. How would you describe your mini pumpkins?
  5. And chances are, my kids will decide to roll all of them, but even that can be fun. Some roll smooth and straight. Others roll bumpy crazy.

• Dumply Pumpkin Hunt
  1. Print out several bumpy and round pumpkins in a couple different shades of orange. I made up a quick page of plumply, dumply and lumpy, bumpy pumpkins above. Feel free to print it (just click & download.)
  2. Cut out and laminate.
  3. Hide the pumpkins all around the yard or in the house.
  4. Give the kids buckets and let them hunt for all the pumpkins!
  5. Count the pumpkins to make sure you have them all!
  6. Sort the pumpkins by color or use them to create patterns.
  7. Sort the bumpy and plumply pumpkins into two separate boxes. Attach an example of each pumpkin to the front of each box.

• Plumply Rice Crispy Pumpkin Treats
  1. Make a batch of Rice Crispy treats and tint them orange.
  2. When cool enough, butter your hands and shape into balls (the lumpy bumpier, the better)
  3. Shape a softened tootsie roll into a stumpy stem for the top!

(thanks Rachel for the great ideas!)

Pumpkin Day

We had a great Pumpkin Day at my friend Camie’s house for preschool last week! She always plans such fun activities and yummy treats.

 

• Cheerio Pumpkin Necklaces … great fine motor and patterning skills!
  1. Need a length of ribbon, bowl of cheerios and orange paper pumpkin cut-outs with a hole punched in each one.
  2. The kids laced one pumpkin, 10 cheerios, one pumpkin, 10 cheerios…
  3. Tie and wear!

   

• Five Little Pumpkins Poem
  1. A classic Halloween poem to do with the kids. I don’t think my 3 and 2-year-old had ever heard it before, but they were repeating it the rest of the day!
  2. Click the images above to print in black & white or click here for color (scroll all the way to the bottom). 
  3. Cut the pictures in half and use as you tell the poem or staple together into a little booklet!
  4. Have the kids hold up their fingers for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th pumpkins. Make up simple hand actions for each part. Clap your hands together for “OUT went the lights” and roll your arms for “rolled out of sight!”

• Read “Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!” by Charles Ghigna …great rhyming text & illustrations.

 

• Pumpkin Graph … I thought this was great for the kids! I need to try to get better pictures. We’re always doing so much that I forget

1. In “Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!” some of the pumpkins are carved into jack-o-lanterns. The kids looked at all of the different faces.
2. Have several copies of each pumpkin face. I made a few different faces to use. If you promise not to laugh, you’re welcome to click and print them
3. Ask the kids “What type of face will your pumpkin have?”
4. Let them choose a face card and add it to the graph. Stack similar cards on top of each other to form a simple graph!

    

• Pumpkin Patterns
  1. Print out several small pumpkin & apple clipart. There are a couple to choose from above (from Microsoft Clipart). Camie’s were so much cuter!
  2. Show the kids a simple AB pattern … pumpkin, apple, pumpkin, apple…
  3. Ask them what would come next.
  4. Let them glue an AB pattern to a long strip of paper!

 

• Pumpkin Life Cycle
  1. Show simple pictures of a pumpkin life cycle.
  2. There is a great printable here.

 

• Paper Plate Pumpkins … what a fun, simple craft! The sticker pieces made this so easy!
  1. Use an orange paper plate and punch a hole in the top (for the stem)
  2. Cut out jack-o-lantern pieces (eyes, nose, mouth) from black sticky back foam paper. My kids apparently like Picasso pumpkins
  3. Add sparkly green foam paper leaves and a stem.
  4. Twist a green pipe cleaner through the hole and twist to make vines!
  5. TIP: These come in ready-to-make kits at Michael’s right now.

• Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie … possibly my favorite part of preschool … snack time This ice cream pie was delicious. The kids (and moms) gobbled it up. Get the super easy recipe on my friend Camie’s blog, Pass the Peas Please.

Roll & Remove Game

My kids loved this game. Half the reason is because they got to eat candy as they played! But seriously, it kept my 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 2-year-old entertained until the game was finished. I love it.

1. Print out these cute, free game boards from The Princess and the Tot.
2. Cut in half and glue onto colored paper.
3. Laminate. I need a laminator. I used two long strips of clear packing tape to “laminate” our boards. I knew with little tasty fingers eating candy corn we’d need a little something to keep the games dry.
4. Place one candy corn in each box. Or, if you’re my kids, also put an extra candy down below, so that if you’ve already rolled the number once, you still get a bonus treat
5. Roll 2 dice (or a 12-sided dice here!)
6. Eat the candy corn from the number you rolled.

I love it because my kids were taking turns, counting the dots, finding the matching number on their board and having fun. You could use this any time of the year. I made up a generic, year-round version too …

Just click it to download and print!

Pumpkins (also see Halloween)

• Handprint Pumpkins
  1. Make 2 green handprints using green tempera paint on green paper.
  2. When dry, cut out and glue to the top of an orange pumpkin cutout.
  3. Staple a green curling ribbon vine to the top.
  4. Have the kids write their names on their pumpkin.

    

• Pumpkin Seed Number Match
  1. Make 5 pumpkin cutouts from orange paper. You can use the pumpkins above, one of your own, or just cut out a round, orange circle and add a simple green stem on top.
  2. Label the left side with numbers 1-5.
  3. Have the kids help glue the corresponding number of pumpkin seeds to the right side of the pumpkin.
  4. Puzzle-cut each pumpkin down the middle.
  5. Mix up the pieces and let the kids count the seeds and match the pumpkins.

• Pumpkin Face Coloring Page
  1. Print the page above from Twisty Noodle. (I love Twisty Noodle pages because you can customize the text!)
  2. Trace the letters & color the picture.
  3. Use black paper to cut out shapes for eyes, a nose, a mouth. Let the kids cut them out – great practice!
  4. Glue the face onto your pumpkin!

• How a Pumpkin Grows Sequence Cards
  1. Click the link above for a great printable!
  2. Color the cards & cut them apart.
  3. Let the kids arrange them in order from seed to pumpkin to pumpkin pie!

snack idea: Pumpkin Pancakes

1. Use orange tinted pancake batter to make circle pancakes.
2. Put fruit cocktail in a bowl, let the kids make faces using the fruit.
3. Drizzle fruit-flavored syrup on top.
4. NOTE: The Mailbox, 2006-2007 Yearbook, Preschool, pg. 67 ... has cute picture recipe cards for the kids to "read" and follow the directions

Ghosts

• Make glue ghosts
  1. Draw a simple ghost & put a piece of wax paper on top.
  2. Fill the outline with glue.
  3. Add googly eyes & let dry.
  4. You can peel the glue ghost right up after it dries.
• Make sucker ghosts
  1. Cover a sucker with a piece of tissue paper (or kleenex).
  2. Tie a ribbon around the bottom and add eyes
• Dress up like ghosts
• Go on a ghost hunt
  1. Paint toilet paper tubes white (or roll up white paper).
  2. Cut out 2 ghost shapes & hide them.
  3. Use the TP tubes to make ghost noises (ooooooooohH!) until you find the ghosts

• Make handprint ghosts
  1. Paint your palm & fingers with white paint.
  2. Make a handprint on black paper. Add eyes & a mouth.
• Make ghost windsocks
  1. Cut out 2 circle eyes and 1 circle mouth from black paper (if your preschooler can do it, great!)
  2. Glue the eyes and mouth to the middle of a white piece of paper.
  3. Insert the ghost face into a clear plastic page protector.
  4. Roll it into a tube and tape along the edge to hold a cylinder shape.
  5. Cut a white garbage bag into strips & attach to the bottom of the tube.
  6. Loop a string through the page protector holes and hang it up outside!

• Another Ghost Windsock
  1. Use a white garbage bag.
  2. Stuff crumbled newspaper in one corner and tie off for the head.
  3. Draw a face!
• Invisible Ghost Painting
  1. Draw ghosts on white paper with white crayons.
  2. Let the kids paint with a dark watercolor (or diluted poster paints) and the ghosts will magically appear!

treat idea: Nutter Butter Ghosts

1. Melt a bowl of white chocolate chips
2. Dip Nutter Butter cookies into the white chocolate
3. Lay on wax paper.
4. Add 2 chocolate chip eyes before the white chocolate dries.

Pumpkin Faces (Halloween)

   

1. Using orange craft foam paper, cut out large pumpkin shapes. I did one tall pumpkin and one short, wide pumpkin.
2. Add a green foam stem.
3. Using black foam paper (not sticky on the back) cut out a variety of eyes, noses and mouth shapes.
4. Build funny, scary and goofy jack-o-lanterns! The best part is that you can take them off and build another one!

Halloween

We have a lot of fun during the week before Halloween. You can either do Halloween as part of H week, or we usually give the holidays their very own week. Here are some of the things we did this year for Halloween week:

• Print out these pumpkin faces. Click the link, then scroll to the very bottom of the page, there are five to print out. Cut them out and try to copy their expressions

• Candy Corn Counting.
  1. Get a sheet each of white, orange and yellow sticky back craft foam paper. I love the foam paper because you don’t need to laminate it and it doesn’t rip easily.
  2. Draw a simple candy corn shape on white cardstock, then use strips of the foam paper to create 10 large candy corn.
  3. Write numbers 1-10 on the bottom and that many dots in the middle. Now your preschooler can use candy corn to count out the numbers 1 to 10 (and eat a few too).

• Halloween BINGO … we play this for just about every holiday.
1. Simply make a grid 3x3, 4x4 whatever you like.
2. Fill each space with clipart. I like to use Microsoft Clipart because it’s free, has cute clipart and is easy to download or copy.
3. Make an extra set to cut up and use for the ones you draw.
4. Use candy corn (my favorite) for markers.

 

• Make Halloween sugar cookies.
1. We try to decorate them with faces on them, but this is how they usually end up looking (tasty!) and deliver them.
2. Or leave them at a friend’s door with this cute little note (above), knock and run! Click the link for a PDF to print!

• Make a Q-tip skeleton.
1. Cut out a simple skull shape and glue it to the top of a black paper.
2. Use Q-tips and glue to make the rest of the skeleton body … a backbone, ribs, arms, legs.
3. Cut the ends off the Q-tips to use for hands and feet.

 

• Toilet Paper Ghost Bowling
1. Draw a simple ghost face on 10 rolls of toilet paper.
2. Stack them up and use a pumpkin or ball to go bowling!
• Stack the TP rolls as high and you can and knock them over. Or see how many TP rolls tall the kids are.
• Mummy Wrap
1. Use one whole roll to wrap and wrap around someone to make a live mummy.
2. The best part afterwards was breaking out and playing with the shredded TP all over the room (cleans up surprisingly fast too!)

snack idea: Pumpkin Faces

I found these plates at the dollar store one year. The kids love having special plates for each holiday. Turn whatever snack you’re having into a jack-o-lantern face! Would work just as well on a regular plate too

Happy Halloween!!