(Materials for modifiers) -sponges -markers -small brushes
Modifiers/Scaffold
For an easier challenge: -Include sponges with activity -Exchange paint for markers
For most children -Encourage chlidren to try to make a face on their pumpkin
For a trickier challenge: -Use smaller brushes -Encourage children to attempt to make pumpkin look like themselves
Follow-up Ideas
-Have the children make their own turkeys. Put out materials such as paper towel rolls, brown feathers, googly eyes, markers, and construction paper, and let the children make their own turkeys for Thanksgiving.
-Make Popsicle stick forts with Popsicle sticks and glue. Give the students Popsicle sticks, glue, and a surface to work on such as a paper plate, and let their imaginations run with it!
Originating Idea
Our preschool classroom will be visiting a pumpkin patch this Halloween! We are so excited to go and see all the beautiful fields of pumpkins! This activity is not only easy to implement, but it's fun and creative.
How to Make It
The teacher should take her children on a trip to the pumpkin patch and let the children choose their own pumpkin. The students can pick two pumpkins if they want to take one home that day. The morning of the day after the field trip to the pumpkin patch, the teacher should set up several palettes of acrylic paint for her students.
How to Implement It
When the students come back to the classroom, they will place their pumpkins on a wall outside the school. The next morning, during circle time, the teacher reads the book, "The Last Pumpkin." While she reads the story, the teacher assistant cover the tables with plastic garbage bags and tape them down to the table with the masking tape. The the teacher and the students will grab their pumpkins from outside and bring them to the tables. The teacher will then tell the students, "We are going to paint our pumpkins today! Just like the children in our story, every one of you chose your pumpkin because it was unique and beautiful! I want you to paint your pumpkins so that it shows everyone why it's so special to you!" The teachers will put a shirt on each student, pass out the paint, and let the activity begin.
At this point, the children will begin painting their pumpkins. Most of the children will paint their pumpkins with either the brushes or their hands. Some of the earlier students will squish the paint in their hands, or only use one or two colors on their pumpkins. Later students will attempt to make pictures or different images. The students will also talk to their teachers about the colors they are using and the images they are trying to make on the pumpkins.
When the students finish painting their pumpkins, they will put their brushes and palettes in the classroom's sink, and then take off their shirts and put it in the laundry basket in the bathroom. They will then wash their hands, arms, faces, and bodies in the sink with a teacher's help. They will then go into the classroom and have some free play as the teachers clean up the rest of the mess.