jack o' lantern felt fun

The kiddos at school love themselves a flannel board. For Halloween I had planned on making a jack o' lantern board for them but time ran away from me.

 Then I found this pumpkin placemat decoration thing at either Micheal's, The Dollar Tree, or Target, I cannot remember. Either way, an idea bloomed. All I needed now was to get to work cutting out shapes for funny face making.

 And then that pesky time thing ran away once again but I stumbled upon sticky felt face pieces for pumpkins at Target and I snatched up one of each design. There were four in all.

After backing the sticky bits with regular old felt we were ready to decorate!

I supplemented the pieces with a bunch of circles and triangles cut from felt and popped them into the tray on our sticky easel.

pumpkin painting exploration

 The children in my class painted up wee pumpkins the week of Halloween. These were a work in progress for the week and had many stages of nifty going on.

 

We began with paint and paintbrushes. The children chose their colors and began painting. We stuck with one palette for each child as we were working on color mixing.

We discussed warm colors and cool colors.

 

I snapped these photos during the first round of paint. Love how the colors mix on the pumpkin itself.

Glitter was added then painted over then added some more.

 

Then the squeeze bottles came out and more exploration was had.

 

It's a bit of a beautiful mess isn't it?

invitation to play: pumpkins and creepy crawleys

Four felt pumpkins and a bag of Halloween rings with the ring-parts snipped off. I set it up to see what they would do.

 

Sorting, counting and naming of colors all happened. The children also talked to each other about their favorite colors or their favorite critter. The purple bats were a top favorite.

One child pulled me over to talk about what he discovered after sorting out all the creepies. He said that there were the most spiders and that most of them were black but a lot were orange but that only one was purple. We had been working on counting, grouping, quantities, and subitizing and seeing that he was taking it all in and using it was so cool. So cool!

better than whack-a-mole

 

 

 

The children had as much fun removing the golf tees as they did walloping them with the mallets.

garden time

It's down to the wire and I am far past cutting it close but I wanted to encourage those of you in the states to plant pumpkins! July 4th is generally a good reminder for a last date to get some seeds started but I suppose if you are not going for a world record, why not start some now? One vine is all you need to produce a handful of the happy gourds and the variety out there to choose from is extraordinary so why not grab some potting soil, an egg carton and a pack or two of seeds and begin?

I have had two packs of seed lazing about a bowl in the garden patiently waiting to be dunked in soil. I also have an ENORMOUS vine taking over the yard that currently has three not-so tiny pumpkins ballooning from its curly tendrils. Methinks the seed will wait until next year. Like I mentioned up there, all ya need is one vine. They can grow massive and quite beastly but they are super cool and there is much to view when given a chance.

Pumpkin vines are prickly to the touch. Not overly painful but prickly enough to want to wear gloves or be careful when handling the beast. The blossoms open quite early in the morning and you may often find a lone bee cozying up inside. The pollen of a pumpkin plant is quite attractive to bees, I have especially noticed the awkward black bumblebees bouncing about from orange blossom to orange blossom. The stems are hollow and the tiny tendrils and leaves that form have a mightier than mighty grip as they curl about stray garden gnomes, tools and furniture.

To tame your vine, you can liberate the stems that have not produced any blossoms. If you take a gander everyday you will notice that once the flowers poop out, a baby pumpkin takes its place. Each seed will produce one vine which will sprout secondary vines. Keep an eye on your main vine and prune out the secondaries. Once your main vine gets a handful of pumpkins popping up, you can pinch off the end to prevent more from growing thus rescuing your garden from complete pumpkin invasion.

To harvest, use garden shears to liberate your prized squash. do this 5-6" away from the fruit so that you have a delightful stem. Set in a cool dry place until carving or baking time. Pumpkins like sunlight and heat so if yer getting close to frosty temps, harvest sooner than later. There are all sorts of websites out there devoted to pumpkins and they all read fairly technical-like. Our pumpkins tend to be volunteers from the compost pile so we know where they like to grow. By starting your seeds inside and then replanting a few all over the place you will hopefully find a location that the happy sprouts enjoy. The only other thing i can add (until I remember more) is that after a while, powdery mildew may set in thus making your happy pumpkin vine look a little less than happy. Stick with it and harvest as soon as your pumpkins turn orange, though we have been known to pick em green and watch them turn orange as they ripen. We also do not use pesticides and would recommend you do not either. Cucumber beetles might move in like gang busters but if yer not growing any large food crops you can simply flick them off with your fingers.

And if pumpkins aren't your thing, plant something else whether it is food (strawberries & lettuce!) or flowers (sunflowers!), getting your hands dirty in the name of gardening is generally a delightful thing.

More pumpkin growing info:

kiddie gardens

flower garden news
pumpkin nook

pumpkin carving with kids

check it out over at craftzine!

Fun with Squash

This is a fun project for those "I'm bored!" moments.

What you need:
*white pumpkins, any size
*washable paints
*paint brushes
*splat mat or covered surface
*paint brushes

scrumdilly-do it1

Set out paints and brushes for your wee one's. You can use small cups, silicone or disposable cupcake liners, egg cartons or a paint palette. Make sure the area you are going to be working in is covered well. Outdoors would be great for this.Place pumpkins onto work surface and let the fun begin! Note to the pumpkin purchasers, size your pumpkins based on your wee one's attention span. A small pumpkin can be finished within 10 minutes and a larger one up to 20, depending on your kidlets. A miniature pumpkin would be best suited for a toddler but the big kids tend to think they're cute also. Just an idea so that you don't overwhelm your kidlet when you present them with a twenty pounder!
The cool thing about using the washable paints is that if your kidlet is not satisfied with his or her paint job then the pumpkin can be easily washed off. Slate clean! Also, the paint, once dry will be delicate and flake off so each day can bring a new pumpkin! Make sure to keep an eye out for soft spots and add to your compost heap when you are throgh. Oops, or you can carve them for Halloween!