One Full Week of Playful Pumpkin Perfection- Are you ready for a week’s worth of pumpkin-filled inspiration?
Great! I’m about to share all of the pumpkin themed play and learning we did this past week.
Activity Sneak Peak:
- Downhill pumpkin roll
- Pumpkin bubble bath
- Building pumpkin towers
- Baking paleo pumpkin bars
- Making a pumpkin bird feeder
- Pumpkin carving- guts, seeds and sorting shapes
- A simple seed counting craft.
Our family recently explored the fun and festive world of pumpkins and now we would like to share our seven days of discovery with you.
As you may have seen in my previous posts, we are following the Exploring Nature with Children nature study with our toddler and baby.
If you are new here- Welcome! Be sure to check out my previous post A Toddler-Friendly Pond Study: How to Make a Splash!
Pumpkins offer a diverse opportunity for learning for children and are the epitome of the Fall season!
Playing and learning with pumpkins made for great STEAM activities that were inclusive for both our 3 year old and 9 month old.
So go grab yourself a PSL (pumpkin spice latte) and get ready to be inspired with One Full Week of Playful Pumpkin Perfection!
Monday
Downhill Pumpkin Roll
We kicked off our pumpkin week with a bit of an impromptu lesson in… gravity!
That’s right! After discovering how pumpkins can roll across the ground, we took it up a notch and decided to do an official downhill pumpkin roll!
Amelia wanted to see how fast the pumpkins could roll down the hill in our yard, so we hauled the pumpkins to the top of the hill and sent them rolling down.
Watching the pumpkins roll and bounce down the hill was exciting and prompted Amelia to want to race them. We brought the pumpkins back up the hill and one by one we sent them on a downhill race against our speedy toddler.
Amelia had a blast and no pumpkins were harmed in our downhill adventure.
Tuesday
Pumpkin Bubble Bath
After a day of being rolled down a muddy hill, our pumpkins were in serious need of a cleaning.
We brought a large bin out on the deck and filled it with warm water and one of our favourite natural bubble bath solutions.
Once the water was nice and bubbly, we added our dirty pumpkins to the bin and scrubbed away! I gave Amelia a scrub brush and a cloth, but she preferred to use her hands.
Brooks was on drying duty and as each pumpkin was cleaned, we placed it on a blanket and he helped polish our pumpkins until they were nice and dry.
Talk about teamwork!
Water play is a huge hit here, so this activity was a lot of fun for us.
Wednesday
Building Pumpkin Towers
Our newly cleaned pumpkins came indoors today for some vertical exploration.
Both our kids enjoy building with different types of blocks, toys and magnetic tiles, so why not try pumpkins too?!
Amelia built a few towers by stacking pumpkins (stems removed). We learned that because they were slightly different shapes and sizes, not all of the pumpkins would stack on the one below and we would need to rearrange them to find the ones that fit together best.
Brooks liked practicing climbing on the wobbly pumpkins, but also enjoyed knocking down the pumpkin towers!
Thursday
Baking Paleo Pumpkin Bars
For a festive, Fall treat- we made Paleo Pumpkin Bars!
These were quick and easy to make, and were a hit with everyone! Amelia was able to help with the preparation of the ingredients and pouring of the batter.
The pumpkin purée we used was from our own pumpkins- featuring our gratitude pumpkin from my post How we Celebrated This Year’s Harvest Moon.
Paleo Pumpkin Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup chilled almond butter
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Grease an 8×8 baking dish with oil. (We used avocado, but coconut would work too).
- Combine all ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Using an immersion blender will get it real smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes.
- Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
- Enjoy!
Friday
Making a Pumpkin Bird Feeder
We love watching the birds outside and we also have a bird feeder that we can view from our living room window.
I’m a huge bird nerd so naturally I’m super proud that my three year old can name different species of birds already.
With more birds hanging around our feeder recently, we decided to make another feeder using… you guessed it… a pumpkin!
What you need:
- A small pumpkin.
- Twine
- Bird seed
How to make a pumpkin bird feeder:
- Cut the top off of the pumpkin and remove the guts/seeds.
- Using a screwdriver or scissors, poke 4 holes around the top portion of the pumpkin.
- String twine through the holes and tie in a knot to allow the pumpkin to be hung from a branch.
- Fill the pumpkin with bird seed and hang from a tree branch.
Our pumpkin bird feeder attracted a variety of birds including chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and blue jays!
Our pumpkin bird feeder attracted a variety of birds including chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and blue jays!
Saturday
Pumpkin Carving- guts, seeds and sorting shapes!
Our sugar pumpkins were reserved for roasting and canning, so we made a quick trip to a local pumpkin patch to pick up a larger pumpkin for carving.
The plan was to make a classic Jack-o-lantern face. This was Amelia’s first year really helping with the carving process, so we didn’t know how she would react to the ooey, gooey pumpkin guts.
We let her explore the inside of the pumpkin with her hands, and with no hesitation, she got right in there to help remove the guts.
Amelia helped separate the seeds from the guts, rinse and let them dry to save and plant for next year’s garden.
After we carved the face into the pumpkin, Amelia had fun replacing the pieces of the face back where they were carved from and named the shapes of the pieces as she went.
Once complete, we ended up with a very handsome Jack-o-lantern!
Sunday
A Simple Seed Counting Craft
We finished off the week with a seed counting activity. Using some of the seeds from our Jack-o-lantern, we created a simple number craft.
- First I helped to cut out a few pumpkins and pumpkin stems from coloured construction paper.
- Next, I had Amelia help glue the pumpkins together on a piece of black card stock.
- I wrote the numbers 5, 10, 15 and 20 on the pumpkins with a black marker. (You can write whichever numbers you like).
- We then counted the seeds and glued them onto each pumpkin.
- Once dry, we were able to count the seeds and work on identifying the number written on each pumpkin.
So, there you have it! Are you feeling a bit pumpkin’d out now?
With the exception of our Jack-o-lantern pumpkin, all of the pumpkins we used this past week were from our own garden.
I highly recommend growing your own sugar pumpkins at home. They are quite easy to grow (even if you have a black thumb), don’t require too much space, create opportunities for learning about gardening with your children, and result in cute pumpkins to use for explorative play, seasonal decorations, and eating!
I hope you found inspiration with One Full Week of Playful Pumpkin Perfection.
Let’s hear from you!
What pumpkin-inspired activities do your children like best?
Be sure to follow play and pinecones on Instagram and Pinterest for more nature inspired play and activities!