This week in Acorns, we have been exploring and investigating a pumpkin! We cut the top off the pumpkin and encouraged the Acorns to explore the stringy insides and seeds with their hands and spoons. This prompted a lot of conversation and laughter about how it felt and smelt! We saved the pumpkin seeds for our playdough alongside other natural materials. The seeds were used for stamping and pattern making, as well as providing opportunities for talk and exploration around numbers.

The next day, we wanted to carve a face on our pumpkin. This provided an opportunity to allow the children to think creatively and flexibly as they worked together to problem solve and link their ideas around emotions and faces. Using our emotions cards, we talked about our feelings and how we wanted our pumpkin to feel. The children decided to give the pumpkin a happy face, which led to much talk about what was on our faces! They all agreed that our pumpkin needed eyes, a nose and a mouth. The children then took turns to help an adult carve the pumpkin’s face.

Some children then showed a curiosity in using the paint with the pumpkin and were very keen on changing its colour completely. The children then enjoyed filling the pumpkin with gloop and foam, watching it ooze out of its mouth! This creative freedom with the pumpkin helps to develop the children’s confidence with exploration of materials, resources and tools, allowing them to discover different properties such as texture, colour, form and composition.