Visit the Pumpkins

[20 Minutes]

Get out in the fresh air with your child and enjoy a trip to the pumpkin patch! If there is no pumpkin patch near you, visit a farm stand or market where your child can see pumpkins.

You'll need:

• pumpkins of all sizes and shapes

What to do:

1. Invite your child to go and see pumpkins with you.
2. Let her handle the pumpkins so that she can feel the stem and the sides. Then let her try to lift small ones.
3. Challenge her to find a BIG pumpkin, a SMALL, a FAT one, and a TALL one.
4. If any pumpkins are broken, show her the insides. Buy one to take home and investigate later.
5. Sing the following song together (Tune to "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush."):

   We are walking through the pumpkin patch, the pumpkin patch, the pumpkin patch.
   We are walking through the pumpkin patch, so early in the morning.
   This is the way we pick the pumpkin, pick the pumpkin, pick the pumpkin.
   This is the way we pick the pumpkin in the pumpkin patch."
   

Let's Talk: Ideas to Explore Together.

• Tell me about the pumpkins. Were they big? Round?
• Did you see orange pumpkins? Can you show me something else that is orange?
• Let's look inside the pumpkin.

Useful information:

While you are having fun together, this activity helps your child develop language skills and an understanding of "same and different".