Too Many Pumpkins

Lest week our lesson plans were based around "Too Many Pumpkins" by Linda White. I hope we did this book justice because it is one of my sister's favorites.

Our sensory bin was black beans and orange pom poms with spiral pipe cleaners. I added a woman and a cat to represent the woman and the cat in the book. A very simple bin, but it was well liked. Enough with the beans already! Ok ok, I hear you and promise that this week's bin is different.

Badger's wonder basket held several little pumpkins, but his favorite was the real pumpkin and he studied, played with, and nibbled on it all week. The woman and cat represent the woman and cat in the book, and there is even a tiny truck.. You have to read the book to find out how they all fit together. 

Our Poem this week was "Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a Gate". The star stickers were hard for even me to peel off the backs, but Panda had fun placing them. Foam stickers are amazing for little hands and Panda had no trouble with them. This was great for getting him to use a pincher grasp on the stickers to get his hand ready for the proper hand hold for a pencil. It also was an exercise in following directions (stars go in the sky and pumpkins go on the fence). 

We also had a pumpkin sitting in our living room all week to warm up and for the kids to explore. They both loved rolling it around and sitting on it and patting it to hear the hollow thumps.. Thursday we cut it open to see what was inside. My sensory seeking little man who hates sticky slimy things dove right in! I am so proud of him. 

We then turned it into our happy Jack o' lantern. Panda says hello and bye every time we pass it. We did our 'normal' counting and letter exercises, but they had no pumpkin theme so I'm leaving them out, however one thing to note was that several days this past week Panda asked to work on them. This boy has such a thirst to learn. 

Panda cut out this pumpkin (with minimal help) using loop scissors and then made a hand print leaf. He was so excited to be making a pumpkin that he didn't even mind the paint on his hand. Several times this week he has proudly pointed out his pumpkin and has told me, "I make Pumpkin". That is a big sentence for my little guy and it also shows pride in his accomplishment.

One last craft we did was to paint mini pumpkins. Panda had a lot of fun swirling the paint around and discovered that yellow and blue make green! Oh the excitement and giggle when he put those two together. 

We ended the week with pumpkin pancakes and a trip to the pumpkin patch. This was our second trip there this year. The first trip was real rocky. Panda darted here and there and didn't listen to anyone. This time he stayed close by and came when called. We didn't even have a melt down when it was time to go. All in all, this week was a success.

Thanks for reading. What pumpkin activities have you done?

~Shine on~