Tot School - Pumpkins

Sophie is 17.5 months old.

Last week was all about pumpkins!  Sophie had been to a pumpkin patch in St. Louis several weeks ago and had seen lots of pumpkins then, as well as visiting a small pumpkin stand here. (Momentary side vent:  There is a serious lack of pumpkin patches in our neck of the woods.)  So she was familiar with pumpkins and was already pointing them out around town as she saw them!  

Sensory Play

Sensory play this week was some orange playdoh I shaped into a pumpkin (with a foam shape stem).  She enjoyed the playdoh much more this time than she had in the past!  (As evidenced by the condition of my kitchen after our play time.  Yikes!  Thinking next time we may try it in the plastic pool in the kitchen.  But seriously, look how much fun she was having in that second picture - I couldn't bring myself to make her stop!)  The very first time she saw my "pumpkin", she pulled out the stem and said "geen" (green).  Wow!  She still doesn't seem to really have a grasp on colors (totally okay at this point!) but every once and a while she surprises me like this.  

I considered opening up a pumpkin to let her play in the gooey insides as a sensory experience, but this pregnant momma just couldn't handle it at this point.  Next year! :)

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was similar to one my sister made for Sophie's "Grandma Tot School" a few weeks ago.  I traced foam pumpkins that I picked up from the Dollar Tree and numbered them.  She's obviously not ready for numerals, but seeing them is just one more way to expose her to them.  She's loved "counting" things around the house, so this just provided opportunity to talk about the numbers as we put the foam pumpkins in place.  

Her second tray this week was a one-to-one correspondence activity with candy pumpkins and a paint palette.  She had no idea they were candy, so we didn't have an issue with her putting them into her mouth!  (I would be careful doing this activity if your child knows they are food!  I was careful to make sure Sophie never saw me eating the leftovers!) 

Her last tray was a pumpkin face activity.  I printed out a pumpkin shape on orange construction paper, cut out some happy pumpkin features, and added googley eyes.  This was a big hit!  I would ask her where the different parts of the face should go and she would put them on.  It was a great vocabulary builder as well as helping her understand the face better.  You could modify this for an older child by adding more options for the face as well as more body parts!  This will definitely be something we repeat in other ways.

Other Activities

The other big hit of the week was a set of pumpkin window clings (also from the Dollar Tree).  Our front window is the perfect height for Sophie to look out and is one of her favorite places.  She played with the "window stickers" all week long.  In fact, since they are more fall than Halloween, they are still up on our window and she is still playing with them!   (PS. The hat was all her!)

We did two different painting activities this week.  The first was "pumpkin" stamping with a friend.  I took slices of a pool noodle and they dipped them in orange paint to create pumpkins.  So, they were pretty much just circles on the page, but with older kids you could totally do more with this.  These little ones were just already done by the time they had finished the stamping part.  No worries! 

The other painting activity was finger painting on a paper plate to make a pumpkin face.  By the end of the week she was so good with her pumpkin face tot tray activity that I decided to make a "permanent" pumpkin face with her.  She painted the paper plate and then added on the eyes, nose and mouth I cut out for her.  I was so impressed with how well she did placing the parts of the face!  (And confession, honestly I was pretty proud of myself for controlling my urge to move the eyes just a *little bit* higher. Terrible, I know, but I resisted the urge!)

The next week will be spent doing some general fall activities!  I'll leave you with these sweet pictures of my sweet little Halloween peacock! :)

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars