A Plethora of Pumpkins

I've been looking forward to this week for quite some time- I love pumpkins!  There have been so many great pumpkin ideas circulating the web lately that it was hard to narrow down what we are going to do this week but I think I've packed the week full of pumpkin fun.

Crafts
Toilet Paper Pumpkins- what better way to dress up the bathroom for fall than these fun pumpkins

Paper Bag Pumpkin- watch and see as we transform a brown paper bag into a bright orange pumpkin

5 Pumpkins on the Fence- we'll glue paper pumpkins up on a popsicle stick fence

Pumpkin Patch- our dot dabbers will help us make a patch full of round pumpkins

Activities
Lifecycle of a Pumpkin Sequencing- Eva will learn about how pumpkins start out as seeds and grow to full-size

Felt  Board Pumpkin- using felt pieces, Eva will be able to make various jack-o-lantern faces

Pumpkin Matching Game- this game will allow Eva to practice matching upper case and lower case letters

Pumpkin Memory Game- Eva's October issue of High Five had a fun little jack-o-lantern game we'll be playing this week

Pumpkin Sort- our mini pumpkins will come in handy for this activity

Pompom Pumpkins- Eva will work on her fine motor skills as she pinches pompoms to place in a pumpkin ice cube tray

Pumpkin Seed Counting- how many seeds will go in each pumpkin?

Pumpkin Patch- we'll take a trip to the local patch to pick the perfect pumpkin and we'll also use some of our own pumpkin decorations to make an indoor patch

Pumpkin Pie Playdough- we'll make a new batch of playdough to carry us through October and November

Cooking
Pumpkin Tortillas- check out these tasty treats!

Pumpkin Cookies- we'll bake some yummy cookies using pureed pumpkin

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds- no explanation needed for these!

Poems and Songs
Pumpkin, Pumpkin Big and Round

5 Pumpkins

10 Little Pumpkins

Books
                  

Apple Sequencing

We've been talking a lot about how trees change through the seasons so I made a simple apple tree sequence for Eva to work with.  On 4x6 index cards I drew an apple tree in each season and then let Eva put them in order.

The winter tree is bare, the spring one has blossoms, the summer ones has smal green apples and the fall on has big red ones.  They were such a big hit, I made another apples sequence for her too.

Garden Sequencing

We have been spending a lot of time in our garden watching everything grow.  It's so neat to see a bud transform into a little veggie and then just a few short days later, be ready to be picked!  For this sequencing activity I drew four stages of a tomato and a cucumber on index cards and Eva set to putting them in the correct order.

After putting them in order, we set out to find the various stages in the garden.  Of course, that's when my camera batteries decided to die so I don't have any pictures of that but it was neat to find all the different stages, alive and growing before us.

Fruits and Veggies

Eva has always been a huge fan of fruits and veggies so she has been enjoying all the wonderfully tasty treats we have been getting from our garden.  We did focus a little on them during our garden week but I thought it would be fun to revisit fruits and vegetables now that they are in such abundance.

Crafts
Fruit and Veggies Prints- Eva had so much fun the last time we tried these so we'll do again using different fruits and veggies

Fruit Dyes- we'll be squishing some of our favorite fruits to produce dyes to paint with

Scrap Bin Vegetables- using scraps and other found items we'll create some fancy veggies

Activities

Lifecycle of Vegetables- in this sequencing activity Eva will be able to see how the plants in our garden went from seed to table

Farmer's Market- we'll head to the local market to collect some favorites and maybe even some new fruits to try

Shopping Checklist- we'll create a checklist using pictures for Eva to use to help me make sure we get all the produce we need on our trip to the farmer's market

Fruit Salad- Eva will once again get to practice her knife skills as we chop and dice fruit to make a tasty and healthy treat

Books