Pumpkin Fishing Activity
Looking for a fun activity for a crisp Autumn afternoon? Need a kid-friendly idea for a Halloween or Thanksgiving celebration? Try Fishing for Pumpkins! This simple idea uses the bounty of the harvest to entertain your Little Pnuts and can be adapted for various ages and developmental levels.
What You Will Need:
- A large plastic container
- A variety of small pumpkins & gourds
- Assorted kitchen tools for scooping pumpkins (we used small mesh strainers, liquid measuring cups and large spoons)
How to Play:
Place your container on a low table or on the ground where your Little Pnuts can access it easily. Place your pumpkins and gourds in the container and add enough water to make them float. Show your Little Pnuts how to use the kitchen tools to scoop out the pumpkins. Be sure to provide language modeling by describing the pumpkins/gourds as you go – talk about the different colors and textures that you encounter, compare the different sizes and shapes of the pumpkins, etc.
Younger Little Pnuts will enjoy simply scooping out the pumpkins and exploring their colors and textures. Make the activity more exciting for older children with one or more of these adaptations:
- Make it a listening comprehension game by describing physical attributes of specific pumpkins for them to scoop (i.e. “Scoop the small bumpy gourd” or “the green and white striped pumpkin”). Adjust the complexity of the directions based on your Little Pnuts developmental level.
- Blindfold your Little Pnuts and see how many pumpkins they can scoop without using their sense of sight
- Grab a timer and see how many pumpkins each child can scoop in 30 seconds. After everyone has had a turn, the child with the most pumpkins scooped within the allotted time is the winner.
This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for your Little Pnuts:
Fine Motor Skill Development, Hand/Eye Coordination, Focus & Concentration, Vocabulary Development, Listening Comprehension—Stephanie Haass, Little Pnuts Early Childhood Activities Expert & Blogger, www.two-daloo.com