How to extend the learning after a visit to a pumpkin patch

Does your family have a tradition of picking out pumpkins? From the grocery store to the pumpkin patch to the U-pick farm, it is so fun to look at all the pumpkins and let your kids pick out just the right one for your home. 

You can use this experience to build your kids' artistic imaginations with these ideas:

1. Questioning-While your kids are scouting out your personal favorites, ask your kids questions to engage their imaginations and spur their vocabulary usage. Here are some ideas:

• Can you name 3 specific color(s) you like without using the word orange?
• Which shape do you think is best for our decorations this year?
• Do you remember what kind of pumpkin you picked/face you carved/painted last year?
• Do you find that you always pick the same shape or color, or do you like to change it each year?
• If this pumpkin had a face or a personality, what would it's personality be like? 

2. Writing-After your pumpkin-picking out experience, write about it. If your kids are not yet writing fluently, have them tell you their words and you can type it or write it down for them. Then read it back to them, or have fluent readers read you their story.

• Write a story about going to the pumpkin patch. Structure it with "first, we...." second we....", "third, we...." and be sure to add those descriptive color and shape words. 
• Write a creative writing story about the pumpkin(s) itself. Structure it with a few sentences of description, (color and shape words) a few sentences about the problem. or adventure the pumpkin faces, and a few sentences about how the pumpkin solves it "happily ever after."

3. Reading-Read a book together to get your kids thinking and create those neural connections between information and what they are experiencing. Here are a couple that relate to visiting a pumpkin patch/thinking about pumpkin personalities: Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell and The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King. If you missed my booklist earlier this month,
go here to download the whole list.

4. Creating-This week's pumpkin idea is to make a clay pumpkin with lots of texture using just a straw or a pencil. By poking texture into the clay, your pumpkin sculpture will gain personality! 

All you need is red/yellow (or orange) Model Magic Air Dry Clay, a pencil or drinking straw, and this quick and easy video.

 Mixing colors with clay is fun for kids, reinforces color theory (red+yellow= orange; yellow + blue= green, etc.) and is great for strengthening hand muscles and imaginations! This activity can be done outside or inside and makes no mess. Have fun creating this week's addition to your growing pumpkin sculptures!

Enriching kids' lives through stories and art,

Jennifer

P.S. Watch for next week's announcement for a way your kids can keep the fun and learning going at home and new class offers coming up!