October Tot School Round Up: Pumpkins

Graham: 3 Years Old / Beckett- 6 Months

Each week I (try to) introduce a new letter (more on that at a later time) and I have activities/learning centered around a certain theme. These past two weeks our theme was pumpkins!

For each theme, I like to have a “book basket/bin” containing books that pertain to the theme! I keep a bookshelf in our resource closet and then pull from it.

We just so happened to have a book on hand, It’s Pumpkin Time, that went right a long with a free printable I found off Teachers Pay Teachers. So I made an entire “lesson” with just these two things! The printable was “See the Pumpkin: Pumpkin Life Cycle- Emergent Reader from “A Pocket Full of Centers.” We read the book a loud during circle time and then colored and read the free reader I downloaded off TPT. He loved it and did great!

For sensory exploration we “dissected” a pumpkin! We called this “Pumpkin Guts!” This was a blast! I turned on some kiddie Halloween Music and I let him dig away. We separated out the pumpkin seeds- and then I let him help me roast them! They turned out delicious.

We learned the song “Five Little Pumpkins.” I found a printable online that includes a pocket chart activity and hung it in our reading corner to look at and sing the song each day. It is also from “A Pocket Full of Centers.”

For Math/Numbers I printed off & laminated an activity where he matched the number of pumpkins to the actual number with a clothespin. I brought out some mini pumpkins as well so he could have a hands-on visual. (I printed this out last year so I can't find the link, but here is something similar!)

Lastly, we read the book, “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” & did a craft a long with it. I used this opportunity to discuss differences among people and how we are all important and equal in God’s eyes.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

- Alli