Tis the season for all things pumpkin: pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin play! Let’s talk about a few of our family’s favorite pumpkin play ideas that might help you make the most of your child’s play this fall.
One of our favorite pumpkin activities is best done outdoors and is fabulously messy! (Go figure, I’m recommending something messy and outside!) We like to call it Pumpkin Mad Science and it has held the attention of kiddos from one year old all the way up to fourteen years old and adults as well!
To set up for this activity, open up a decent sized pumpkin. Don’t clean it out though because part of the fun is all the gunk inside. Add a few drops of food coloring to vinegar and get an ample supply of baking soda. The really big bags of baking soda from your local wholesale retailer are great for this activity, I promise you are going to want to have quite a bit on hand.
Provide eye droppers, buckets, scoopers, spoons, and sticks. After that, sit back and watch the experimentation ensue. Better yet, get in there with your kiddo and and experiment along side them!
Another activity we enjoy is the pumpkin art class with Nana from chalkpastel.com (afflink), the videos are truly wonderful and my son loves painting with Nana. There are so many awesome fall options available in the You Are An Artist program and they are fun, quick, simple, and minimal prep work for you beforehand! I definitely recommend checking them out.
The next activity we love is a pumpkin or gourd sensory bin. Take a Rubbermaid tub and pour in dried corn, kinetic sand, green rice, black beans – anything you want for your base medium. Then add in small pumpkins, gourds, scoops, a magnifying glass, and anything else you think might be fun. This is a fun and engaging activity to let your kiddos tinker with while you read them some fun, fall books!
Another great activity is what I like to call, Pumpkin Estimation. Get three pumpkins of different sizes (small, medium, and large) and then ask your child to take a guess at how many seeds might be inside each one. Ask them which one they think holds the most and why they formed that hypothesis. Write it down as your child is telling you their answers, you can even make a chart! Then open up the pumpkins and empty them out into three separate bowls. It is very important you don’t mix the seeds from the pumpkins because the next step is to clean them and count them! Will your kiddo count by ones? Fives? Tens? Let them decide and then total up and compare the seed counts. Want to get a little extra math-y with your pumpkin play? Make a bar graph or use pumpkin stickers to represent a set number of seeds and create a pictograph!
If you really want to blow your child’s mind, teach them how to read the clues on the outside of a pumpkin to learn the secrets on the inside of the pumpkin. Each line on the outside of a pumpkin represents a row of seeds on the inside. The longer a pumpkin grows, the more lines it develops – but it doesn’t necessarily get bigger.
A super yummy activity is to bake pumpkin cookies. You can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like, it is entirely up to you. A basic sugar cookie recipe with pumpkin pie spice mixed in and pumpkin cookie cutters are simple, fun, and yummy. Want to get a little extra crazy with it? Add some red and yellow food coloring and chat about what color you might end up with. Remember, conversations are brain building! If you feel like exercising your inner chef there are many wonderful pumpkin cookie recipes out there using pumpkin from a can or even pumpkin from a, well, pumpkin!
Another awesome activity is to make pumpkin play dough. This one is seriously fun, it is play to make it and then play to use it. Add some pumpkin pie spice and food coloring to the following recipe, add fall cookie cutters, and you have some great play time ahead of you!
Play Dough Recipe
- 2 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1 cup of hot water (possibly a 1/2 cup more)
- 2 tablespoon of oil
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
- food coloring
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and form a well. Add the oil, food coloring, and water to the dry ingredients. Knead you’re play dough until it reaches the desired consistency.
Something we love to do is have a pumpkin race. Get several small pumpkins and put them in a bucket or inside a hula hoop on the ground. Have your kiddos race them from one side of the room to the other. If you can be outside, even better! If you have an only child, don’t lament yet another activity you can’t do. Time them and have them try to beat their best time! Does taking pumpkins from point A to point B feel a little too simple for your kids? No worries – add obstacles! Pool noodles laid across chairs make for a great low crawl. Set out a few pumpkins or cones and create a weave zone. Your creativity and the sky is the limit when it comes to the obstacles you can set up. Don’t have a way to set up obstacles? That’s ok, too! Have your child frog hop while holding a pumpkin, crab walk with the pumpkin on their tummy, or try to balance a mini pumpkin on their head while they travel from place to place!
You can also have a pumpkin scavenger hunt! Hide the little mini pumpkins all over your house or yard and have your child hunt them Easter egg style. Can’t get a lot of mini pumpkins? No worries, paper pumpkin cut outs work just as well.
Draw or print off the outline of a pumpkin and provide your child with red and orange paint. Encourage them to finger paint – color mixing, the sensory experience, and the motor movement all make this activity a simple power house. Play doesn’t have to be elaborate to be fun!
You can also give your child that same pumpkin outline, orange construction paper, and a squeeze bottle of glue. Let them tear the paper into a million bits and then glue them to the pumpkin mosaic style. Be sure to use the squeeze bottle of glue instead of a glue stick in order to exercise your kiddo’s fine motor muscles.
I only have three more activities to list, And they are all three pretty awesome. Have you considered inviting your children to participate in a little indoor pumpkin launching? Give your child access to pencils, rubber bands, plastic spoons or little cups, and glue (a glue gun works best but definitely requires adult supervision). Let them look at some cool catapults in some books and then design their very own and launch some pumpkins! Well, since you are indoors orange craft pompoms are probably your best bet! Encourage your child to experiment with different designs to see what works best and launches those “pumpkins” farthest. Are you looking to win the super cool parent of the year award? Supersize those catapults and take them outside for some serious pumpkin chucking!
Another absolutely fantastic activity is one that takes forethought and space. Let your children grow their own pumpkins. You will want to check your growing zone to figure out the best time to plant them, but this will definitely be a multi-month activity. It is well worth it though. The absolute pleasure on your child’s face when they pick their own pumpkin out of their yard in the fall is priceless.
Last but not least, set up an invitation to dramatic play with a pumpkin patch. Use some pumpkins, green play scarves, hay bales, a cash register, and some play money to encourage play that will go on and on.
In this busy season that is fast approaching, make sure you are taking time for play in both your child’s day and your own. All of these ideas are fun and themed, but your play doesn’t have to be themed to be worthwhile. Remember, play doesn’t have to be elaborate to be powerful.
If you try any of these ideas, I’d love to hear about it! You can leave a comment here or come join us at the new Superpower of Play Discussion Group on Facebook!
The Superpower of Play 