Pumpkin Patch Playtime!

It's November 1st, and allow me to be the first to wish you a Happy Buy Your Purim Costumes and Dress-up Clothes at 50% Off Day! We don't happen to celebrate Halloween, but Autumn just isn't Autumn without pumpkins here. We [I] even [toiled and slaved and cursed and cried] in the garden to grown our own mini pumpkin and gourd. Yes. Only one. Of each. Costing me roughly a total of $54 when all was said and done, but worth every penny. I think. We also purchased some mini pumpkins and gourds, painted white pumpkins with acrylic paints, picked our own pumpkins at S's school field trip and needed an indoor way to have some playful and active fun yesterday while handing out [and eating] candy.
Introducing Pumpkin Patch Playtime! Whether you're looking to give those pumpkins one last hurrah today or trying to burn off some of the post-Halloween calories and energy, these simple activities are sure to please and simple to set up and execute at home or in the classroom.


Our Pumpkin Patch hosted a small selection of gross motor and dramatic play activities. You could include them all, add your own, or choose your favorites. You could do this outside if your weather permits, but it works just as well indoors given enough space.

The boys were invited as they came downstairs from their nap to take a hayride to the Pumpkin Patch. I used a small riding toy, but you can also use a cardboard box, bike/tricycle, scooter, skates or your own two feet! I used masking tape to make a path toward the pumpkin patch that would later double as our corn maze. If you have carpeting and are worried about tape, carpet safe tape options are available. I've never had a problem with masking tape as along as you remove it the same day. You can implement labels and sentence strips if you want to support a print rich environment.

Once they arrived at the Pumpkin Patch, the boys were greeted by the sight of artificial leaves strewn about the rug (you can also cut your own from paper or use the real thing outside). A couple of child sized rakes and a recycled brown paper bag were at the ready for raking leaves. If you have reservations about using rakes indoors, you could probably substitute in child sized brooms or children could use their hands or even tongs or tweezers to pick up leaves. If you have a larger group, this would be a really fun activity to do with a parachute and to use the leaves on the parachute to toss into the air before having the children rake and collect them.

The Pumpkin Patch itself was set up using artificial floral/foliage garlands I bought from the Dollar Tree earlier this year to use in our play sukkah as vines and our collection of pumpkins and gourds starring as themselves. You could use artificial/toy pumpkins, or even make your own by painting and stuffing brown paper lunch bags (as I did for our basketball game). At the Pumpkin Patch, the boys could "pick" pumpkins and gourds, fill up their shopping cart and bring them to The Pumpkin Patch Store (their kitchen set and cash register) to pay. You can get as detailed as you want here and make price tags, signs, etc. You can also keep it simple (as we did) and just go with the flow. S had the idea to use the pumpkins in the kitchen and make pumpkin cakes, pies and something he called "pumpkin juice" that I'm willing to try at least once to find out if I like it! He also wanted to use some brown paper shopping bags for carrying pumpkins and gourds, which became its own lesson in measurement, weight and structural integrity...

Both of the boys loved Pumpkin Basketball. S was quite inspired to try a real pumpkin in the game, but since we were inside, I put a damper on that one. Instead, I prepped some simple brown paper lunch bag pumpkin basketballs. I colored the bags with orange and green marker, stuffed them with tissue paper and taped them shut before smooshing them into a round shape. Alternatively, you could use actual balls and permanent markers to make them look like pumpkins. Everyone (yes, me, too) took turns having three tosses to try and make a basket.

These activities are meant to get everyone up and moving and active. When excitement and festivity are in the air (even and especially the day after), movement is a necessity. If you're needing a less active and quieter option or station, these DIY peg board geo-pumpkins are the way to go. They still encourage active engagement of muscles, strength and energy, but they are a bit more stationary in nature. This has been a favorite activity for S the last few years now, and this year Y got in on the fun as well. They hammered golf tees into a couple of our mini pumpkins last week for Table Time one morning. Yesterday, I set out the trays of rubber-bands and our pumpkin geo-boards. Y was able to loosely drape larger rubber bands over the pegs and S was able to make intricate shapes and designs.

We will likely give these gourds and pumpkins one last hurrah here as we explore the inside and maybe even do a little baking per S's request. But honestly, I'm pumpkin-spiced out and ready for what's next...Chanukah!

If you're gearing up for Chanukah as well and looking for a playful and educational way to bring some early math and literacy skills into your home or classroom, check out my Chanukah Counting Soup game on TeachersPayTeachers. It's a fabulous way to bring fun, festivity and a little bit of learning into your home or classroom this season.

And until then...happy playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Thanksgiving Theme

Y's first induction into our Thanksgiving Wall of Fame

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday that we don't actually celebrate! Well, we kind of do...both my husband and I love the traditional Thanksgiving foods, but neither of us wants to have a huge meal on a Thursday and then again for Shabbos. My husband's birthday is also around Thanksgiving, so we usually have a Thanksgiving themed Shabbos somewhere in there. Last year while I was homeschooling S, we had a lot of themed fun and learning and enough paper plate crafts by the end of it to serve an entire Thanksgiving meal! This year, he is learning about Thanksgiving in his preschool and at home, I've added in some themed fun to our play area for the boys to explore. After a morning of more structured activity, I like our afternoons to be more child-led when it comes to S--and this truly seems to be the ideal pace for him as well. Y has been making leaps and bounds in development lately and is especially eager to play, engage in songs and action rhymes and even try his hand (and, um mouth) at arts and crafts!

Our Thanksgiving Wall of Fame--with a couple of favorites from last year and a lot of restraint on my part to leave space for new creations and not hang up EVERY single paper plate Thanksgiving craft known to man...

Both boys really love the fingerplay "Five Little Turkeys" from DLTK's Crafts for Kids. Last year I made a set of turkey stick puppets to use along with it:

Five Little Turkeys

Five little turkeys standing at the door,

One waddled off, and then there were four.

Four little turkeys sitting near a tree,

One waddled off, and then there were three.

Three little turkeys with nothing to do,

One waddled off, and then there were two.

Two little turkeys in the morning sun,

One waddled off, and then there was one.

One little turkey better run away,

For soon it will be Thanksgiving Day.

Our Art Center has had a major revamp:

Ta da!

This time around, I included a combination of more "project" inspired art and more "process" inspired art along with a variety of materials to use in combination or on their own. This set up is aimed to be child-led in that S can choose what activity he'd like to try and independently access, bring it to his table, carry out the activity and bring it back when he is done. Our "U-pick a Project" basket is stocked in the middle cube with Thanksgiving craft kits leftover from last year. Other cubes are more open-ended...

With our playdough tray and cutting practice turkey collage tray, I included laminated photos of suggested creations on velcro. I showed S how to remove and replace the pictures if he wants to bring to the table with him when he uses the trays. I also made sure to tell him that this is one way to use the materials, but there are many ways to use them and he can use them in his own way when he's working with them.

Our invitation to create a playdough turkey is a favorite worth repeating from year to year. And if you've even found yourself with a collection of unused brown playdough from party packs (or a toddler-inspired color mixing project), here's your chance to put it to good use! That along with some orange card-stock beaks, googly eyes, pipe cleaner legs and feathers are all the materials you'll need to build an adorable little Thanksgiving turkey! Sub in some Model Magic clay for a project you can allow to dry and decorate your table, or just remove the parts and put it back on the shelf for your next play session.

S loves anything that involves scissors and cutting practice. He's early in his cutting skill development so cutting the edges of these feather shapes is the perfect way to combine his love of the activity with some actual function and intention. You really can't go wrong with feathers...even if you cut all the way across! I included some pre-cut brown bodies, orange beaks, a red waddle, a glue stick and some eye stickers.

Our invitation to create a turkey collage is a the perfect combination of recycling and craftiness. I had some pre-cut turkeys from last year and I have several ziplock sandwich bags full of loose craft parts and interesting papers and ribbons. Throw in some glue and a stash of colorful feathers and you're ready to go.

The materials on our shelves can be used in a variety of combinations as well. In addition to the specific trays and activities, I also included some of our favorite writing and drawing materials. Slick stix and do-a-dot markers are always popular, and also friendly to the smaller set of hands in the family as they are thick enough for fist-gripping and easily mark on paper. A couple of pencil cups filled with markers and crayons are visually inviting to S whereas keeping them in tubs or bins often leaves them out of sight and out of mind. 

I included a tray of do-a-dot activity sheets that can be used with these stickers, with bingo dabbers, or even with magnets or mini erasers if you prefer a re-usable version. The "T is for Turkey" page is available for print from Making Learning Fun, where you can find a variety of great Thanksgiving themed activities.

• You may also like these Thanksgiving Dot Painting Free Printables from The Resourceful Mama.
• I also love the free printable Autumn Matching Cards available at Montessori For Everyone. S has particularly enjoyed playing games together especially on Shabbos and once you print and laminate these, they are perfect for playing Memory, Match-it, or What's Missing?

S really loves using our felt wall to play about school when he's at home. I've caught him over there more than once doing "calendar time." It does a teacher-mommy proud! He actually told me recently he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. He thinks that means he will get to go inside a school bus... In the mean time, I pulled out this old Thanksgiving poem fill in the blank activity from my teaching days and set it up by his felt wall along with one of our favorite DIY Thanksgiving games from last year, "Yes, Please and No, Thank You!" S is definitely not reading all of this yet, but I love a print rich environment. We can use it together and he can also enjoy a chance to play at being The Teacher.

To make your own version of "Yes, Please and No, Thank You," you will need to glue (or draw) some pictures of common Thanksgiving foods onto paper plates. You will also need a couple of sentence strips with the phrases "Yes, please!" and "No, thank you!"  written on them. When playing with one "player," he or she can sort all the plates into foods he /she likes/wants to try and those he/she does not like or wish to try.  It's a great way to practice good table manners before the actual meal! With multiple players, children can take turns choosing a food to say "yes, please" to or "no, thank you." You can also practice common table manners like having a child ask "can you please pass the___?" or "would you like to try some____?" 

Even our deep freezer got a Thanksgiving-themed makeover! Indeed, it makes a perfect child-accessible vertical work surface. I brought out an old pin-the-feather-on-the-turkey poster I made a couple of years ago and added in an envelope for spare feathers. I also found this fun magnetic turkey set at the Dollar Tree. 

While Thanksgiving crafts and cooking are two of my favorite things about this season, my very favorite is the opportunity to slow down and enjoy time playing and connecting as a family. I love having a few days together to move at a slower pace, to let the little ones take more of a lead and to admire their sense of wonder, joy and creativity. Whether you "officially" celebrate Thanksgiving or not, hope these days inspire a sense of gratitude and joy and plenty of time for happy playing!

Rosh Hashanah Invitation Stations

Ah, Rosh Hashanah is so close I can almost taste the apples dipped in sweet, sticky honey! It's the perfect time to...play?! Yes, play! There's a lot to be done, and whether you're the cook ahead and freeze it till Wednesday night type or the start it all Wednesday morning type, you're going to need your kids to be busy. Really busy. This post has just about everything you'll need for that. Some of the activities and games are ones that your children can do independently. Some, they may want help from an older sibling with. Most can be adapted to a variety of age groups. And maybe, just maybe, you'll need a little break and get to play along. The added bonus is that while they are playing, the children will be developing fine motor skills, pre-writing/writing skills, using their imagination and creativity to make some great artwork, learning math concepts, engaging in sensory play, engineering and, of course, learning about the upcoming holiday.

You can choose one, a few, or all of the activities to try. Some will require an element of prep-work. Use what you have on hand and don't drive yourself crazy trying to set up games and activities while preparing for a three day yom tov. Feel free to adapt activities to work for you and your kids. And have fun!

To start, you'll want to visit A Jewish Homeschool Blog to gather your free Rosh Hashanah printables. I've adapted several of them as you will see below to use in our Rosh Hashanah Invitation Stations. You will see that I've laminated many of the items or used dry-erase sleeves for more-than-one-time use, but you do not need to do that. You can easily just print the activity packs or selections of materials you like and use them as is. You can also engage your children who are independent with scissors in preparing activities and games--that's an activity in and of itself! You may also want to print out this free Counting Apples Book from Fun a Day.

Some additional materials you may want to use if you have on hand include:

• markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils
• glue, scissors
• apple stickers, bee stickers
• solid white gift bags or brown paper bags
• blank note cards & envelopes
• clip art or cut outs of apples (even made from recycled doodles and paintings)
• playdough (check out this recipe for cinnamon scented playdough!) or store bought
• artificial leaves, apples, stems, dried black beans (for parts of an apple)
• dried oats, shredded paper, scoops, tongs, recycled containers for sensory bins
• toy bees, toy apples
• wooden craft sticks, clothes pins

Invitation to Play with Playdough:

This is a favorite of ours, worth repeating! This invitation to create an apple with play dough is so much fun. Here I used cinnamon playdough, artificial leaves, dried beans, cinnamon sticks and some toy apples for reference (along with a library book that shows the life cycle of an apple tree). 

Invitation to Play: Sensory Bins

We've had two favorite sensory bins this season:

Parts of an Apple Sensory Bin: we used dried oats, cinnamon sticks, artificial leaves, toy apples, scoops and containers

Busy as a Bee Sensory Bin: we used shredded paper in yellow and black (from the party supply section of Dollar Tree), artificial flowers, a magnifying glass, tons and containers for filling, some toy bees (you might need that magnifying glass to actually spot them!) and I also set out some bee themed artwork/graphics and a set of bumble bee wings (also from Dollar Tree) to inspire play!

Invitation to Create: Rosh Hashanah Cards and Gift Bags

This is a great one if you have greetings to send out or packages to deliver to friends, family and teachers this time of year:

I set out a variety of art materials, stickers, some sentence strips to inspire even pre-writers (who still are gathering the concept that letters make words and words can make messages!)...this is an activity that is sure to keep little hands busy!

Invitation to Play Games:

Here are a variety of Rosh Hashanah games prepared from the free printables linked above. Younger ones may need an older child or adult play partner.

Rosh Hashanah Parts of a Whole

Rosh Hashanah Hebrew Word Match-it

Clothes Pin Counting Cards

They come in Hebrew Letter Cards, too! If you don't have clothes pins at home, you can use a paper clip, a penny, a mini eraser or small loose part or even use these un-laminated and have the children use bingo dabbers or circle the correct answer for one-time use.

Counting apples game: Little ones won't even notice they're doing math as they use tongs to pick the correct number of apples from the basket to correspond to the number on these apple cards (printable also from the link above)

Speaking of Counting...Invitation to Create a Counting Book:

This one is great to create a fun keepsake your early reader will love to read again and again after decorating!

We used red circle stickers for our "apples" but you can use red ink and fingerprints, stickers, bingo dabbers or even provide loose parts (like pom poms) to use with the book (printable linked above)

Invitation to Decorate a Tzedakah Box

Here's another printable from the activity pack linked above. I subbed in yellow circle stickers for the yellow circles that came with the coloring sheet. Your little artist can have fun decorating the tzedakah box and adding in the sticker "coins" as we recall that this is an auspicious time of year to be extra charitable.

 Invitation to Play: DIY Toy Tzedakah Box
This is one of the first toys I made when S was about Y's age! For smaller babies you can use baby food jar lids as your coins. I like using plastic coins from the Dollar Tree in ours. All you need to make it is a recycled plastic container with a lid (I like the ones from Hershey's brand cocoa powder) and an exacto knife to cut the slot at the top. With the Hershey's container, the "Hershey's" insignia is just the right size for your opening! Very little ones will love putting the coins inside, shaking it and as they get older, emptying it out and doing it again! S actually still loves to play with this.

Do keep an eye on little ones with small pieces that could present a choking hazard and make sure your "tzedakah" is not too small for tiny mouths!

To add an element of challenge for older toddlers, use two different colored containers and corresponding colors of bottle caps or poker chips for a tzedakah sorting game. (For example, cut a slot in the top of a couple of those take and toss plastic storage containers in red and blue and save your milk caps or applesauce pouch caps for the coins!)

And for more baby/young toddler friendly Rosh Hashanah play activities, check out this post!

For more fine motor fun, here's a lovely holiday themed lacing activity also available from the link above:

Alternatively, you can cut individual Rosh Hashanah themed shapes from cardboard or cardstock and hole punch the perimeter for a set of holiday lacing shapes.

 Music and Movement:
I love using props with songs and action rhymes. With this playful counting rhyme, your little one will also be learning mathematical concepts like counting, division, and, with the addition of props, one-to-one correspondence!

Ten Red Apples

Ten red apples grew up in a tree
Five for you and five for me!
Let us shake the tree just so
And then red apples will fall below!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!

This was another creation from S's baby days. We upcycled (and laminated) some of his paintings into apples for counting along with this playful rhyme. It's also a great activity to go along with the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.

Invitation to Build: Rosh Hashanah Themed STEM activities

Invite your little engineer to build apple trees using recycled cardboard tubes, green craft sticks (you can paint/color plain ones green or purchase colored craft sticks) and apple colored pom poms. How many craft sticks and pom poms can you balance on top before it topples? Add an element of sorting by designating one tree for each apple color if you wish!

Help this busy bee build his hive using craft sticks to trace the hexagon.

I hope this inspires some fun and play in your household as holiday preparations take off. May we all be blessed with a sweet, healthy, happy and playful new year!

From our family to you and yours, shanah tova u'mesukah!

Beyond the Book: "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney

 S requested a story stretcher about bunnies this week shortly after his Bubbie sent Y a copy of Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You along with a plush version of Little Nutbrown Hare. We actually had a copy of the book at home from S's baby days! Sometimes when we end up with doubles of a book, I pass along the extra to a friend or our local children's book bank. Other times, I hold on to an extra for a Mommy & Me set or a Brothers set. This is one of those books that is worth extra copies of! With S beginning preschool in a week, I also thought a book about the love shared in a family would be very appropriate right now. (Ok, admittedly, one of us needs the extra love and snuggles right now more than the other, and it may not be S!)

Sometimes when I prepare a story stretcher, I gather ideas from online. Other times I hit the books. And other times, I dig deep into the recesses of my imagination and come up with our plan. That is what I did with this one! So I invite you today to come along with me as we travel to the very back of my brain where story stretchers are born...

Children's literature is full of themes to play and learn about--both overt themes and more subtle ones. This  story is about Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare sharing a sweet bedtime exchange about just how much they love one another. There is certainly a theme of love and bedtime routines here and the main characters fulfilled S's bunny request. For the sake of our play and learning activities, I thought it would be fun to dissect the title. We ended up with a collection of activities involving guessing games (Guess), measuring (How Much) and love/family (I Love You).

I also needed to make sure to incorporate the bunny theme as well, since that was S's original idea. We began our afternoon reading the book all together. S held one copy and Y and I manned the second one. Then we switched copies and read it again, per S's request! We started our activities at the little table with a homemade color matching game: Pin the Tail on the Bunny. I set our bunnies out on the table and kept the tails inside a drawstring bag. We tried to guess which color would come out next before matching and sticking them onto the corresponding bunny's backside. Here's what you will need to make your own version of the game:
DIY Pin the Tail on the Bunny
Materials:

• rainbow colored printing paper
• velcro dots (scratchy side)
• pom poms in rainbow colors
• laminating machine & printer
• scissors

I searched the internet for a simple black and white silhouette of a rabbit. After copying, pasting and adjusting to my desired size (you can do this on a Word document or whichever computer program you prefer), I printed off copies on colored paper. I laminated and cut out each bunny and stuck a velcro dot to the tail. Now we were all ready to play! The pom poms stay put fairly well without adding velcro, however if you want them to stick better (or to be able to use them on a vertical surface) you may want to affix velcro dots to the pom poms as well.

We were ready for another guessing game. This time we gathered at the easel with my Mystery Bag. S's mission, should he choose to accept it, was to reveal a mystery word by guessing, one letter at a time, what letter I was hiding in our Mystery Bag using only his hands, no peeking! You can add in a blindfold if you wish. One at a time, I hid a large magnetic letter inside the Mystery Bag. S felt through the bag, making his guesses along the way, but was mostly excited to pull out the mystery letter and reveal our special word.

 And the word was LOVE. We looked at the title on our target book to see the same word! Now that we had spelled the word and read the word, it was time for some writing!
Early writing adventures include a multi-sensory approach. I love to show pre-readers and writers the ways in which they already read and write--even if not in the same way that older people do. Fostering feelings of competence and success at this stage inspires children to love the process of learning these skills. Today's writing activity was a fun one for the whole family and a great one to do at home with your own family:

Love Notes/Family Fan Mail
Materials:
Choose some or all of the following and add in any other materials you'd like:

• markers
• lined labels for writing dictation on and/or writing prompts
• I added prompts to several labels like "I love you as much as...," "I love you more than...," and "I love when..." Others I left blank so that S could dictate his own love notes!
• heart shaped stickers
• letter stamps with L, O, V, E, 
• heart themed stamps (leftover from Valentine's Day season last year)
• heart shaped doilies, foam cut outs (alternatively you can use construction paper or print off heart shapes--older children can cut out their own hearts and observe how symmetry works by tracing half a heart onto folded paper)
• red gift bags

For young ones who are new to the art of writing love notes, you will want to model this. I prepped a Fan Mail Bag for each member of our family. I prepped a love note for each member of the family and read them to S. We placed them in the appropriate bags for family members to read later on. Love notes can be sweet, silly, simple or more detailed. Using labels allowed for S to place the words on paper, even if he's not yet doing so directly through writing. He had a great time dictating and doodling love notes to each of us and even requested help to write some for a few of his friends. We all especially enjoyed reading them at the dinner table later on and I think I might keep my "I love you more than sticks" love note forever! A bag full of fan mail is also a great treasure on a day you may feel down in the dumps--it's always a nice reminder to know much we are loved!

Y and the Purple Crayon...do I see another
story stretcher in our future??

For our final activity, I had set out and taped down some large sheets of white craft paper. I helped trace each of the boys bodies so we could guess and then measure how big both of the boys are--using magnetiles! You could definitely use a ruler to measure with if you prefer. At this stage, inches are still pretty meaningless to S and Y. Magnetiles are totally awesome and fun--plus they naturally stick together and come in a standard, measurable size. You can use any type of block as a measuring unit so long as each one is the same size and shape. Once both boys were traced onto paper, I cut out their shapes. We left those taped to the floor. Y was officially tuckered out by now and fell asleep. S got busy decorating both tracings and gathering our square shaped magnetiles. We started by making a guess (or estimate) of how many magnetiles tall each brother was and then used the magnetiles to measure. I recorded the process on each tracing and at the very end, we hung them up on the door (so our living room would look less like a crime scene!).

Even with S heading off to school next week, story stretchers will be a special way for us to connect and spend time together in the afternoons. S will likely need a little more open play time and quality family time after a morning of preschool's structure and routine. Play through children's literature is one of many great ways to incorporate that. Y will also have an opportunity now in the mornings for some Mommy & Me time and I look forward to sharing that experience as well. Whether you're gearing up for this back to school season (or counting down the hours), may we all enjoy these last days of summer while happily playing!