Five Pumpkins on a Wall
What you need
- five soft toys, orange or round ones if you have them
- a long cushion as the wall
How to do it
- Lay the cushion on the floor as the wall and sit the five soft toys along it as pumpkins.
- Say the rhyme together: "Five little pumpkins sitting on a wall, one rolled off with a bump and a fall."
- On "bump", your child rolls one pumpkin off. Count how many are left, and start the next verse with that number.
- Keep going down to none, then swap so they say it and you roll.
Why it matters
A rhyme that counts down puts the number in their hands one pumpkin at a time, and the bump in each verse is the bit they wait for.
What they're learning
- Counting back
- Five, four, three: one fewer each verse.
- Rhyme
- Wall and fall, said over and over.
- Joining in
- Saying the rhyme and doing the bump at the right moment.
What to look for
Notice them saying the new number before they've counted the pumpkins left.
A tip
Keep the cushion low so the pumpkins only roll a little way.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: start with three pumpkins
Harder: ask them to make up a new line with another rhyming word: wall, fall, ball, tall
