Last week I went to Sprouts Farmers Market to get a couple of pumpkins for our classroom. They were so cheap I ended up getting about twenty pumpkins and gourds in all different sizes and colors. Since then, we have been using them in all areas of the classroom and even in the playground. Here are some of our favorite ways to use pumpkins at preschool.
1. Pumpkin Hammering
We hammered golf tees into one of the bigger pumpkins with the hammers from our work bench. Holding the tee still with one hand while hitting it with the hammer requires concentration and works fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
2. Pumpkin Geo-Boards
This one was my co-teacher, Miss Erin's, idea. Once our pumpkin was full of nails, we stretched rubber bands around the nails to make shapes.
3. Dry Erase Pumpkin Drawing
We drew faces that could wipe right off with our dry erase markers.
4. Pumpkin Houses
We drew doors and windows on some of our pumpkins and added them, along with the little people, to the play-dough table.
5. Pumpkin Mummies
One of our class' favorite Halloween books is Skeleton Meets the Mommy. After reading it several times, we used gauze to make our pumpkins look like mummies.
6. Pumpkin Stew
I saw this wonderful idea on the blog My Nearest and Dearest.
I simply set out the invitation to play and the children cooked up a delicious, pumpkin spice stew!
7. Pumpkin Painting
We dipped pumpkins and gourds in paint and rolled them across a big piece of paper.
8.Pumpkins in the Playground
Sometimes it's best to just put out the materials and then let the children decide what to do with them. We took the pumpkins outside and added them to the other loose parts in the playground. Here are some of the wonderful and creative things we saw the children doing with them.
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