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Five Little Pumpkins

October 22, 2009 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement Leave a Comment

Five Little Pumpkins (Harper Growing Tree)This is a well-known fingerplay that in 1998 was illustrated and put in book format by Dan Yaccarino.  It’s a book little ones enjoy reading, especially once they are already familiar with the fingerplay and can essentially “read” the book independently.  Whether you use the book or not, here’s the fingerplay!

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate  (Five fingers on top of opposite hand.  I usually explain the word “gate” the first time through.  For the next five lines, show the number of fingers corresponding with the ordinal number and really play up the rest of the intention of the line with your facial expression.)

The first one says, “Oh my it’s getting late!” 

The second one says, “There are witches in the air!”

The third one says, “But we don’t care!” 

The fourth one says, “Let’s run and run and run.”

The fifth one says, “I’m ready for some fun!”

Then, ooooooh went the wind, and out went the light, (Clap on “out”)

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!  (Roll arm over arm.)

This is a classic, and fun, fingerplay for Halloween!  It’s great for language and math skills, particularly reinforcing ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.).  Couple this activity with any of the other pumpkin activities from the Fall Favorites page!

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I’m Amanda Morgan. Here’s what I’m about…

In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.

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