Pumpkin Math

The smiling jack-o-lantern gives you and the children in your care seeds to use in activities that are fun as well as educational!

You'll need:

• dried pumpkin seeds • large index cards • glue • marker or crayon • cotton swab or paint brush
What to do:

1. Let the children in your care use wide markers or crayons and help them draw numbers on large index cards.
2. Show the children how to dip a cotton swab in glue and trace over the numbers.
3. Invite your children to paste dried seeds over the glue.
4. When the number cards are dry, encourage your children to move their fingers over each number. Use the cards for counting, simple math problems, and matching games.
5. Help your children learn shapes by drawing a circle, square or triangle on paper. Encourage them to glue pumpkin seeds on the shape outline.
6. Draw holiday shapes on paper (for example: pumpkin, ghost, turkey, cat, or bat). Encourage your children to fill inside the shape with glued pumpkin seeds.

Let's Talk: Ideas to Explore Together.

* Where did you glue the seeds? On a number? A shape?
* Have you looked inside a real pumpkin?
* What did you see?

Useful information:

While you are having fun together, this activity provides experiences for developing concepts related to shapes, number recognition, and math.