Pumpkins, Water, Books

Being the week before Halloween, I decided to put out some great activities for the kids to do. First we added a pumpkin washing station. I bought 5 little gourd pumpkins and set them out with a basin, scrubber, towel, and water cup. The kids enjoyed getting their water, washing and then drying the pumpkins. We had to help the little ones a little bit bringing the water from the sink (unfortunately the sink is a ways away from the playroom) and emptying the basin when they were through. The preschoolers did the whole job on their own though.

I set out the black beans and Halloween objects in the sensory table. I love the contrast in color in this sensory bin. The kids love it too. We are really working on keeping the sensory materials IN the sensory table. The little ones have no concept of their own space and will always hold their cup over the outside of the bin to fill it. So, the sound of beans bouncing on the floor is a constant in the playroom today.

We also made pumpkin spice play dough. I took this photo of the Princess getting ready to help me knead the dough, which she did. I have no clue what happened that I couldn't get a photo of her actually kneading the dough though :) It seems something is always distracting me.

Here are my friends playing with the completed dough!! They loved the smell and texture. The spice I used didn't totally dissolve so they could feel the little bitty spices in the dough. Also, I tried to make the dough orange... that didn't happen. Princess and I put to much of the spice in and it turned into an orangey brown. They didn't seem to mind.

I put out some fun Halloween books (our favorite is the 5 Little Pumpkins book) in our reading corner too. The kids had fun looking at them and "reading" them to each other. I enjoyed watching the "big" kids with the little ones. They get very excited to think they are teaching the little ones something. Especially these two guys, who happen to have older siblings at home and are almost never the ones to get to do things faster, better or first. Another reason I love the multi-aged learning environment.