We have one more week until the children turn themselves into pumpkins, turtles, princesses, or whatever their imagination thinks of! The children get so excited to dress up and fill up their decorated pillowcases (from last week’s activity) with lots of candy. We also added another activity if Halloween is not your thing. Let the fun begin.
Extra Note: If you carve out a real pumpkin, wash the seeds and save them because we will be using them in next week’s Family Night Activity.
Countdown 5..4..3..2..1
Materials needed
- 5 pieces of orange construction paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Pumpkin stencil
- Pencils
Gather all the materials onto your workspace. Since Halloween is so close, we will be making a pumpkin final countdown. This will help the children understand how many more days till they fill their candy bags. The amount of pumpkins you make will depend on what day you choose for the Family Night Activity. Have each child trace the pumpkin stencil onto the orange paper. Encourage them to cut out the pumpkin and draw a face on them. Assign the children one number to put on each pumpkin.
For example: If you do the plan on Tuesday, you will make 5 pumpkins; one for Tuesday, another Wednesday, etc. (one for each day until Saturday). The pumpkin for Tuesday should have the number 5 on it, the Wednesday pumpkin should have 4 on it, and so on.
Hide a pumpkin and have the children try to find the pumpkin for each day. Place the pumpkins on the fridge so the children have a visual of how many days are left until Halloween. Happy pumpkin finding!
Outdoor Scavenger Adventure (Alternative Idea)
Realizing that some families do not participate in Halloween, we wanted to offer an alternative activity still in the theme of fall. Have the children think of some things that remind of fall. Some ideas might be the fall harvest from the fields (corn, wheat, etc), apple orchard, raking leaves, etc. Armed with the list, carefully plan your next step or just pile into the car. You will want to find each item on the list and take a digital picture of the item. Make sure you get a least one child in each picture. You can certainly invite other families to join you in the planning and going. Let the children do the inviting and remember to include those who don’t have children (you may be surprised on who says yes). You can do a collage with the pictures and proudly display it on your wall of memories.
Remember to have fun and watch as you create memories with your children that will last a lifetime.
Suggested Conversation Starters (these are just ideas and can be altered depending on the ages or developmental stages of your kids)
1. As your children are making faces onto the pumpkin, ask them what kind of face they are making. See if they know what emotion goes along with the face.
2. Count together to see how many days are left. Great way to work with your children on some math too. You can start the math fun the second day. Do some multiplication, addition, subtraction and even division with the older children.
Suggested Movie Titles
It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Munster Go Home!
These movies are just suggestions. If you would like additional information about the story or the content, you can visit www.kids-in-mind.com.
Suggested Bed Time Stories/Reading
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
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