Follow Us

Not Just Cute

Whole Child Development

Pumpkin Scoop

by Filed Under: Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment

pumpkin seed

While exploring pumpkins with young children, you can’t miss the opportunity to examine the insides of these fascinating gourds as well as the outsides!  Cut open a pumpkin and place it in your sensory table with scoops, spoons, tweezers, and magnifiers.  Provide cups as well, for collecting the seeds.  You can air dry them and use them to grow pumpkins next year!  (Read more about saving seeds here.  Pumpkins are really quite easy to grow if you have the space.  Saving and reusing seeds also ties in very nicely with the book, Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.)

[Read more…]

Surprise Pumpkin!

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 11 Comments

Children love good storytelling!  When the storyteller engages them with facial and voice expression and tailors the story to the young audience, even the most boisterous young children can be found sitting with rapt attention!  Listening to storytelling has much of the same benefits for young children as being read to.  There isn’t the print corrolation, but there is tremendous building of language and listening skills and the concept of story structure.  Here is a fun and engaging storytelling activity perfect for this time of year!  You should practice it and get comfortable with it before “performing” for children.  Let your own creativity take over and change it up any way you like to make it your own story!  I actually heard this story as I was sitting in a library story time with my sons and tweaked it a bit to make it mine.  I’m sure you could put your own spin on it and make it even better!

DSCN2588

[Read more…]

Book Activity: Runaway Pumpkin

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment

Runaway PumpkinRunaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis, is relatively new, and completely new to me this year!  It’s a delightful story about what happens when two mischievous boys start a giant pumpkin rolling down a hillside.  One by one,  family members envision delicious pumpkin treats, as the pumpkin continues on it’s destructive path.  Finally, the pumpkin is stopped and well-used on a Halloween night.  The text on the page seems to bounce right along with the pumpkin, a great feature for building phonological awareness.  The children (OK, so did I) really get a kick out of seeing the whole family in their Halloween costumes!

Follow up this book by making a favorite pumpkin treat, like Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!

[Read more…]

Fall Favorites!

by Filed Under: Celebrate!, Unit Themes 4 Comments

fall

 Fall is my favorite time of year.  It just appeals to all of the senses.  You can feel and smell the changes in the air, hear the leaves under your feet, see the colors blazing, and even taste the fabulous fruits of fall.  This time of year is a great time to talk about changes, seasons, pumpkins, apples, and trees.  Of course you can always throw in some Halloween fun as well! 

[Read more…]

Serendipitous Seed Science

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

DSCN1929It’s only June, and my preschool age son is already antsy for school.  He asked me to “play preschool” with him yesterday.  A convenient request, since I’m pretty good at playing preschool.  He’s watched the show Sid the Science Kid on PBS (a great show for kids and teachers alike), and wanted to do a “Super Fab Lab” science activity like they do.  He was in luck!  I just happened to have such an activity on hand!  It might be one you’d like to recreate as well!DSCN1931

I had been sprouting pumpkin seeds in Ziplocs with wet paper towels.  It gives them a jump-start when you plant them, and also helps me determine whether or not the seeds we’ve dried from last year’s jack-o-lanterns are viable seeds.  Well, the seeds were great, and I’d planted all I could use, but still had quite a few left over in a bag.  Being a procrastinator, I left the last bag on the window sill, until I decided what to do with it.  And then I forgot about it.  I noticed it the other day, and it had full-on seedlings in it.  Luckily I didn’t throw it out, because it was perfect for our “Super Fab Lab”.DSCN1932

[Read more…]

Get Our Newsletter & Developmental Guide