walking through my pumpkin patch...

Yesterday was our autumn adventure to the pumpkin patch. Other than being cold and windy (but, at least not snowy - that came later!), it was a fun and festive experience for the children, as-well-as for all of us adults :)

we rode on a tractor-pulled hay wagon

searched for pumpkins

hidden among dried-out cornstalks

and made our way home

to celebrate our shiny, orange treasures!

Here's a fun pumpkin patch song/game that I'm still trying to fine-tune. I played it at circle time with 9 Kindergartners yesterday afternoon, but I'm not sure how it will go with 20 preschoolers...

First, I had all the children curl-up in the middle of the circle like pumpkins in a pumpkin patch. I walked around them singing (the tune is kind of like "Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow"):

walking through my pumpkin patch, walking through my pumpkin patch, pumpkins ripe, pumpkins round, orange pumpkins on the ground...

I tapped a child on her back and sang (I really don't know how to describe this tune... it's higher and faster than the first part):

a pumpkin ran away, it was on a beautiful day, said he they'll make a pie of me if I should stay

Then I sat down on the line, and the child I tapped took a turn walking though the pumpkin patch. The children really wanted to run when they were tapped - I had them do a sort of tiptoe-skip around the outside of the "pumpkin patch." This would potentially get crazy with 10 more children in the mix! Hmmm... I'm going to give it a try on Monday.