Fall Sensory Play with Pumpkins and Water

Pumpkins are such a memorable item from nature for fall.  Add to the fun some water, leaves, acorns and now you have your own pumpkin sensory play for your child.

Here’s how to create this natural sensory play.

Amazon links included in this post

Pumpkin Sensory Activity for Kids

Going on a nature hunt during the fall with kids can be such fun.  My daughters thought it would be fun to bring inside a few item we found during a recent outdoor play to observe.  After we used the leaves for our Number Leaf Game  and Number Leaf Scavenger Hunt .   With the welcoming of October, there’s one special items that you must add to the mix Pumpkins !

This week we’re featuring Pumpkins for the Virtual Book Club for Kids  

Five Little Pumpkins  by Dan Yaccarino
Watch a Read Aloud Here 

Materials 

• 5 miniature pumpkins or Artificial Pumpkins 
• Acorns or Artificial Acorns
• Leaves
• Clear Large Baking Dish

Read the book Five Little Pumpkins  or any Pumpkin Themed books, see below for more ideas, as you start this pumpkin sensory activity with your child.

Pumpkin Sensory Play for Kids

This Sensory Play with Pumpkins and Water is all about being creative as a kid.  Get the materials ready with them and then allow them time to play.  Make sure you set up for play on a surface that is wet friendly as there will be some water that splashed out during the water fun with pumpkin.

Once your child has played with the pumpkins and water for some time they may be up for the science challenge.   You can encourage them to try to stack the pumpkins on top of each other or stack acorns on top of the pumpkin.  There are some many ways to work with the fall objects from nature with this pumpkin sensory play activity.

Trust me it’s harder than it looks to stack them on top of a floating pumpkin.  Great for fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and concentration.

For older kids you could challenge them to use sticks to build a fence to match the storybook ofFive Little Pumpkins .  Listen to the Song Five Little Pumpkin by Raffi or The Learning Station  to go along withthe book or try out a new version by Super Simple Songs . Once you’re all done you can also use Dot Markers  to complete the Five Little Pumpkins Printable from Fiddle and Doodle.

Pumpkin Themed Books for Kids

There are quite a few pumpkin themed books for kids.  We’re featuring 5 Little Pumpkins for our book for this week but there are quite a few more to include or use instead of.  My personal favorite is probably Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White.

Do you have a favorite Pumpkin themed Book?  Share! 

 

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
The Littlest Pumpkin

Too Many Pumpkins
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever

It’s Pumpkin Time!
Where Is Baby’s Pumpkin? (Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Books)

Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing Is Better and Worse Than Pumpkins
Duck & Goose, Find a Pumpkin (Oversized Board Book)

Join our Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook Group 

We’re excited to be starting our new season of Virtual Book Club for Kids for 2016-2017.  This season we’re hosting weekly themes and books.  You can check out what’s next week here .

YOU’RE INVITED. We’re inviting you to join along and share your own pumpkin themed ideas with your child or students using the featured story Five Little Pumpkins  or one of the other Pumpkin Books mentioned above.  You can share on our facebook page or join our VBC Facebook Group.

VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB HOSTS: Plus we’re inviting you to visit our Virtual Book Club for Kids cohosts sites for additional activity ideas all about Pumpkins.  I’m featuring below here for you to go check out and get ideas for your preschooler ages 2-5.

I invite you to go check out our Virtual book Club for Kids cohosts and the activities that they are sharing below for you and your child that are all pumpkin themed.

Pumpkin Themed Activities for Kids

Alpahbet Activities 
Pumpkin Rocks Alphabet Matching – Inspiration Laboratories
Pumpkin Light Box Letter Formation – Adventures of Adam
Name Activities 
Pumpkin Patch Name Spelling Activity – Still Playing School
Number Activities 
Pumpkin Patch Picking Numbers – Rainy Day Mum
Pumpkin Counting Printable -CraftCreateCalm
Pumpkin Math: How Many Segments? – Teach Beside Me
Sensory Activities 
Pumpkin Sensory Play with Water- The Educators’ Spin On It
Pumpkin Number Puzzles – Sea of Knowledge
Cooking Activities 
Roasting Pumpkin Seeds With Kids: A Five Senses Experience – To be a Kid Again
Pumpkin Spice Cookie Bars – Sugar, Spice & Glitter
Science Activities 
Do Pumpkins Float? – JDaniel4’s Mom
Preschool Pumpkin Skin Experiment – Preschool Powol Packets
Color Activities 
Painting with Pumpkins – Kori at Home
Easy Colorful Mosaic Pumpkins for Kids – Toddler Approved
Pre-Writing Activities 
5 Little Pumpkins Fine Motor Busy Bag – Views From a Step Stool
Retelling with Finger Puppets – Chickadee Lit
Pumpkin Suncatchers – Clare’s Little Tots
Roll a die, fall movement activity – Kara Carrero
Shape Activities 
Make a Felt Pumpkin Face – Mama Smiles
Free Printable Pumpkin Shape Puzzles– School time Snippets

Next Week we’re featuring the book Little Blue Truck  Come join Along!

Also be sure to check out the Halloween STEAM Book .