Pumpkin Patch Small World Play

October is always a fun time to learn and play with pumpkins in preschool! I recently set up an incredibly simple “pumpkin patch” for small world play in the classroom. The kiddos got into it even more than I thought they would!

Amazon links included below (linking to items similar to items used in this activity). More info in my disclosure policy.

Materials
Acrylic pumpkins
Small and large river rocks
Bamboo tray
Toy tractors and trucks

Set Up
As I mentioned previously, this was incredibly simple. I set the tray out on one of our center tables, then placed a variety of river rocks on the tray. The pumpkins were then placed on top of the rocks. The kiddos came over as I was setting it all up, so they helped with that too!

How the children played
The children dove right into this small world play invitation! Exclaiming, “Oh! We have a pumpkin patch to take care of!” one my girls grabbed some of her buds and brought them to the table.

The pumpkins were arranged and rearranged over the rocks. A few children grabbed some trucks from our building are, explaining that a pumpkin patch needs farmers and tractors. The pumpkins and the rocks were loaded into the trucks, then unloaded. Then loaded again, then unloaded again . . . etc., etc.

At one point, everything was taken off the tray. Then multiple children worked together to make a new pumpkin patch, adding the pumpkins back to the tray without the rocks. It was so interesting to watch how intentional the kiddos were when placing the pumpkins back on the tray. They wanted each pumpkin to have its very own spot in the patch.

All in all, this incredibly basic pumpkin patch activity led to over an hour of play. It’s been recreated multiple times since then, as well!

The learning
If you’re a regular reader of Fun-A-Day, you know I can go on and on (and on . . .) about the learning that takes place during seemingly simple activities. Here are a few things the children learned/practiced with this small world play:

• Teamwork
• Counting
• Fine motor skills
• Sorting
• Estimating
• Language skills

Have you tried small world play with a “pumpkin patch” before? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. If you’re looking for more ideas, be sure to see how Buggy and Buddy created a sensory play pumpkin patch small world! Play Train’s has a play dough pumpkin patch train small world, too!