Pumpkins

Stacking in a Wagon

Paint and Pumpkins

We love our new multi-purpose Octo-Table

As the air is cooling and the leaves are beginning to fall from the tree, we find our own way to explore the changing of the season. This week I brought in a basket of small pumpkins and gourds as a manipulative for the children to use. Through the week we've used them in various ways so that the children can explore the size and shape of these pumpkins through various interactions. 

We carried and lifted in hands, wagons and baskets. These coveted items gave us a chance to practice the phrases we're working on : “Can I have it?” and “I'm using it!” or as Santi said, “Me using.” 

T focuses on putting the paint on a pumpkin

We added red and yellow paint with hands and paint brushes. The paint landed mostly on the pumpkins, but also on hands, hair, chairs, the canvas underneath and the wall near by.

Checking in while playing very close to each other

This being out first week in our new room, having the pumpkins as a focus gave me a chance to set clear boundaries and expectations: when we're painting you can do it here, the pumpkins are too fragile for our mouth, it's important to listen, you can use something for as long as you'd like and then we can clean up.

Playing with the pumpkins has given us an entry into some of the lesser used materials in the classroom.

Because everyone loved the pumpkins, I mixed it up by adding in some arches. I have had these in the classroom for a while, but they have mostly just been knocked and dumped. When I placed the basket of pumpkins in the middle of a circle of wooden arches, everyone was attracted and gathered experimenting with different ways to use the two things together.

Sometimes the simple provocations are the best: bowls, pumpkins and pipe cleaners.

Singing 5 Little Pumpkins