After our preschool visited the farm, we set up our dramatic play area as a pumpkin stand. Our dramatic play area is part of our every day learning centers in both our toddler and preschool classes. We change the props every one to two weeks, sometimes leaving it up longer if we see the children have a great interest in it. Our pumpkin stand was very meaningful because it was a recent part of their real-life experiences. Not only had we visited the farm with pumpkins the week prior, but most had also visited pumpkin stands with their families.
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Some items we added to our pumpkin stand:
Notepads and pencils
Miniature pumpkins
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After our visit to the pumpkin patch, the children kept talking about what they saw. They loved arriving to school the next week to find the dramatic play area set up as a pumpkin stand.
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We added many miniature pumpkins, baskets, a cash register, scales and notepads.
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Activities are much more meaningful when the children have experienced it in real life. Therefore, they were very excited to be “selling” pumpkins at the farm.
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“Can we sell taco food here?”
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“My pumpkin is REAL big.”
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“I have 2 money.”
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On Wednesday night the 3’s will be involved in Dad’s Night, an evening where they spend an hour with Dad at preschool carving a pumpkin. It will add to the excitement of our farm stand as they learn how pumpkins turn into jack-o-lanterns!
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Books to go with this theme:
Such a great idea! This would be so fun to create! Perfect for teaching simple math, too!