I have said it many a time, but I will say it again – I just love celebrating holidays. And there is nothing quite like celebrating holidays with little ones. So we really live it up.
And we start super early.
October 1st saw our very first Halloween craft this year, and we have been going strong ever since.
The Halloween costume discussion has also been in full swing, changing almost daily, and running the whole gamete from police officers, to rain clouds, to Santa clause …
One of my favourite Halloween poems is 5 Little Pumpkins. I know I wrote about it before in my post about not-so-spooky Halloween crafts, but I love it so much we did another activity with it!
This one was actually a craft I made all on my own to use as a story telling prompt.
I created 5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate, with each little pumpkin being able to be flipped down.
I saw this idea first used for the song 5 Green and Speckled Frogs and thought it brilliant!
This is a great manipulative for little ones and helps them with number sense, ordering, and counting. Plus, it is super cute – and I don’t really do scary Halloween, just cute.
I used a paper towel tube, a piece of construction paper, tape, and markers for this sweet craft.
I cut the construction paper into 5 strips, then I drew ‘fence-like’ boards on them (or at least I tried)
Then I wrapped each one around the paper towel tube, not too snugly, but not loosely either, and taped them. Making sure they rolled down and up smoothly and adjusting the tape if needed.
Do this for all 5 piece.
Then draw or cut out 5 tiny orange pumpkins to go on each little gate piece. I tried to make one pumpkin with a spooky face but I just couldn’t do it – it was promptly changed into a smile.
And yes, this is quite likely why my poor 13 year old is so easily spooked. You can blame it on Mom at home with the smiling jack-o-lanterns, glittery spider webs, and giggling ghosts.
Anyways, finally I taped the little pumpkins onto their gates and we got to singing! Here is the poem we used, in case you are not familiar with 5 little pumpkins:
Five little pumpkins
Sitting on a gate.
The first one said,
“Oh, my it’s getting late!”
The second one said,
“There are witches in the air!”
The third one said,
“Well, I don’t care!”
The fourth one said,
“Let’s run and run and run!”
The fifth one said,
“I’m ready for some fun!”
Ooooo went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight.
At the end of the poem, when all the pumpkins roll out of sight, we roll the paper towel tube backwards showing each little face one more time and then having them disappear.
Cute, right?
Hope you are having fun getting into the Halloween spirit with your little ones! Thank you for reading friends.
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