Pumpkin Week: Day 3!

 Today was day 3 of pumpkin week for tot school! We don't do usually much more than an hour of "learning." Today we did a book, some songs, sensory play, a craft, and then we watched a movie. 

Book

Today we watched a read-along on YouTube of Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin. It was a quick and easy read with the entire video being under three and a half minutes. It was a cute book, and very easy for the toddlers (my son, and my nephew) to follow along with. My son is 2.5 years old, and my nephew is 1.5 years old. We like quick and easy, since these two are busy guys! 

Craft

For our craft today, we did an easy painted pumpkin. I printed a pumpkin template out onto painting paper (trimmed down to fit into the printer) and then put the paper in a gallon sized baggie with some orange paint. I closed the bag up and let them push the paint around with their fingers. I was going to do a color mixing of yellow and red to make orange, but the last time they each got bored trying to make the color, so I opted not to do that this time. 

The finished products were beautiful! I pulled them out of the baggie carefully and let them dry on a counter. This kept them occupied all of five minutes haha. Like I said, these guys are busy unless we find something they absolutely love. 

Sensory Play

For our sensory play, I started simply with play-doh. I took out orange and green play-doh and showed them how to make small pumpkins and then asked if they wanted to try. 

We focused on that for a little while, and they both tried rolling the play-doh because it's good for their motor skills. Then, I took out a small circle play-doh cutter and had them make small pumpkins and we counted them while singing songs. "One little, two little, three little pumpkins..."

Both the boys really like counting, so this activity was simple, easy, and engaging for them. The play-doh kept them occupied for about twenty minutes (which is a huge win for these two!) and then we moved on to our rice sensory bin. 

The rice sensory bin is still a huge hit over here! We play our seek and find, but my son has some speech issues so it's also turned into a speech game.

"Pumpkin, where are you? Where are you, pumpkin?" I asked on day one, and then when I pulled one out I said, "There's a pumpkin!" and now when he's searching for a pumpkin my son asks the same question, and then answers it himself. A month ago he couldn't put three words together and now we're getting sentences!

My nephew really seemed interested in this activity too! I was worried he wasn't going to like it, but he seemed to love it! I might need to make more bins like this so each of the boys can have their own instead of sharing one. 

Songs, movie & Snack

I used some songs that I made up, and some songs that I found here  that were related to pumpkins. They're cute, easy, and the tunes are familiar so the boys seemed to like them. 

After the songs, it was time for our 10 o'clock snack and a movie. We do this everyday during the week, unless we have therapies going on. Today's snack were Halloween pretzels and Halloween cheese snacks my sister got for them. 

Then I turned on James and the Giant Peach. Yes, Yes, I know, it's a peach and not a pumpkin, but, close enough. And one boy got bored, and the other fell asleep, so I guess it didn't matter, haha. Normally they stay awake and attentive, but it was a rainy, early morning here. 

On Friday, I plan to have a Spookley the Square Pumpkin morning with the boys!