Pumpkin Scoop and Sort
What you need
- a pumpkin with the lid cut off by you
- a big metal spoon
- a bowl for the stringy insides
- an egg box
- a tray or newspaper under everything
How to do it
- Put the pumpkin on the tray, lift the lid off, and let your child look and sniff inside before anyone touches anything.
- Hand them the spoon and let them scrape the stringy insides out into the bowl, with two hands on the spoon when it gets stuck.
- Pick the seeds out of the strings together and drop them into the egg box, the same number in every cup: two, then three.
- Count each cup together, then count how many cups are full, and talk about what the pumpkin looks like now it's empty.
Why it matters
Scraping out a pumpkin takes a strong grip and a lot of pushing, and slippery seeds dropped one by one into egg box cups give counting something to feel.
What they're learning
- Scraping with a spoon
- Pushing hard against the pumpkin wall.
- Counting out
- The same number of seeds in every cup.
- Inside a pumpkin
- Strings, seeds and a smell of its own.
What to look for
Notice them touching each seed as they count it.
A tip
You do all the cutting with a sharp knife, before the play starts and well out of reach. The seeds are for counting, not eating, and they're slippery, so wipe up any that land on the floor.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: fill each cup with as many seeds as they like and count just one cup together
Harder: put one seed in the first cup, two in the next, and so on, and see how far the seeds go
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Fine motor activities · Toddler activities with a bowl · Toddler activities with a spoon · Toddler activities with a tray · Toddler activities with a cardboard box · Toddler activities with jar lids