pumpkins Archives - Page 2 of 2

It’s Pumpkin Time- Read.Explore.Learn

October 19, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we have been working on pumpkin activities and reading It’s Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall. It’s Pumpkin Time walks its readers through the stages of growing a pumpkin from seed to sitting carved on a front step.

The illustrations in this book are amazing. I love the coloring layers and vivid pictures. Sharl Halpern did a wonderful job sharing in pictures each of the stages Zoe Hall described.

What did we do to explore Its Pumpkin Time?

Pumpkin Emotion Game

JDaniel and I created an emotion box and facial features that expressed different emotions. We talked about emotions and how to express them.This activity was created for The Studio by Kiwi Crate. I have written several activities for The Studio. I hope you will check out my page of activities there.

Pumpkin Dice Game

I created a game sheet with ten pumpkins and wrote the numbers 1-10 on one of each of them. JDaniel rolled the dice and then put an acorn on the numbers as he rolled them.We used dice with dots on them so JDaniel could count them. An older child would be able to use a set of dice with numbers on them and add the numbers together to make sums. They could then cover the sums with an acorn.

Here are some of the wonderful posts that linked up last week:

Healthy Eating Starts At Home created an amazing lunch to go along with the book In the Tall, Tall Grass.

Tots and Me has a wonderful moon unit. I really like the activities she selected to learn about the moon. Her moon craters activity really looks like fun.

How have you been exploring books this week? Share your children’s book exploration posts below. I will be featuring them on the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page during the next week.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

A Very Long Search for a Pumpkin in a Pumpkin Patch

October 17, 2012 By Deirdre

After the children in JDaniel’s preschool class had the parts of a pumpkin and the rules for holding a pumpkin explained to them, the headed into the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin to take home.

The lady giving us the farm tour said to search for just the right pumpkin for you. When you found it, you were to stand by it with your hand up and someone would come across the pumpkin patch and cut it off the vine for you.

Searching the Pumpkin Patch

Some of the children barely made it into the field when they found the pumpkin they wanted. The lady came over and snipped the vine and they hustled out of the field to wait for the others to pick theirs.If they had known how long that wait would be, they might have might have stayed in the field a little longer. The early pumpkin pickers ended up having to wait quite awhile for the others to find theirs. Soon few more children found their pumpkins and some kept looking and looking. Just an average pumpkin wasn’t going go home with them.

More and more of the class picked their pumpkins, raised their hand, had their pumpkin’s stem cut, and headed out of the field. Still there was one little boy who had to keep looking.

Despite my questioning whether it was possible to have passed the ideal pumpkin, he keep looking and looking.

“Are you looking for a small pumpkin or a large one?” I asked. He simply shrugged his shoulders and kept looking.

There was so much thought going into a decision that seemed to take others no time to make. He wanted it to be just right. I started to wonder if he would ever find one. We had driven ourselves to the farm. We could stay just a little bit longer than the class if we needed to.Finally after everyone in his class had found their pumpkin his hand shot into the air. The guide quickly came over to cut the stem of this much searched for pumpkin. JDaniel was thrilled with it. Finding just what he had wanted to really made his day.

What did the perfect pumpkin look like? It is orange with green spots on it. It is on the large size of small pumpkins and it is really heavy. It was too heavy for a now tired from searching little boy to carry any further than the hay wagon we had to taken to the field on.

Just as it is with other things we search for life. Finding just the right thing can take awhile. When you find it, it can make your whole day!This post is part of a blogging link up called Outside Play: Pumpkins and Leaves. If you have a post on this theme I would love for you to link it up below.This link up is being co-hosted by Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, One Stop Mom Talk, Home Learning Journey, Train Up a Child, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Usual Mayhem, Here Come the Girls.

Lunch and Breakfast Ideas with Pumpkins for Kids

October 15, 2012 By Deirdre

October has been a crazy and busy month. On Wednesday we went to the pumpkin patch with JDaniel’s class, rushed from the farm the patch was on to his speech assessment and then to a local park to visit with some playgroup friends we haven’t seen in ages. Thankfully the park is less than a mile from the testing site. The farm was forty minutes away from our church’s school where the testing took place. With so much going on I created lunch and breakfast ideas we could take on the go if we needed to.

With all that going on I knew I needed to pack JDaniel a bento lunch to have at some point. He ended up having it in the waiting area of the testing center. I was so glad I had brought it with me the testing ran over an hour and it was 1:30 p.m. before he finished. The tester commented that he had so much to say it was hard to move on to the other questions on the language part of the test.

Lunch Ideas

What did he have for lunch? He had pumpkins spice marshmallows, pumpkin spice cream cheese spread on a flour tortilla and cut into sections, carrots (left uneaten), red grapes, and ham and Colby Jack pumpkin cutouts.

Breakfast Ideas

A breakfast muffin tin meal with a pumpkin theme was also served this week. JDaniel has started asking for a flour tortilla and Colby Jack cheese for breakfast. Some mornings he gets all the ingredients out and makes it himself. This lunch features his favorite breakfast sandwich in a the shape of a pumpkin. He also got sweet potato french fries leftover from the night before, pumpkin spice marshmallows, red grapes, raisin bran, and frozen yogurt pumpkin.JDaniel doesn’t usually get dessert at breakfast time, but he loves the marshmallows and I thought I would spoil him a little.

We have loved taste testing pumpkin relate products we have found at the store.

More Lunch and Breakfast Ideas

Breakfast Ideas Kids will Love

Breakfast Rice Recipes

What is your favorite pumpkin product?

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September

October 4, 2012 By Deirdre

Every one in awhile I like to give you heads up on guest posts that I have written for other blogs or websites.Today I thought I would share them with you. If you feel so lead, I would love for you to visit them, but I totally understand if all you have time for is to read over the list below.

Guest Posts from Other Sites

Guest Posts for Kids Activities Blog

This paper plate fall-themed barn is a great way to display symbols of fall.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September - Pumpkin Cling

We had the best time exploring ribbon and creating a pumpkin window cling. It is still hanging up in JDaniel’s room.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September- Stencil Painting

We have used cookie cutters for years for Muffin Tin lunches, cutting cookies, and play dough play. This time we used cookie cutters as stencils for painting.

Guest Posts for Kiwi Crate

I don’t think I mentioned that I have started working with the Kiwi Crate to contribute to their Recipes for Fun database. Here are some of the activities I have contributed to them: