Lesson Plan (Quick View)

• Warm-Up: Action poem “Five Little Pumpkins”
• Vestibular: Pumpkin patch locomotor relay
• Proprioception: Pass the pumpkin to music
• Balance: Orange balloon volley
• Eye-Hand Coordination: Stuff the pumpkin
• Cool-Down: Book Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor
• Fine Motor: Paper plate tissue paper pumpkin

• Warm-Up

Action Poem: “Five Little Pumpkins” Original Author Unknown. From www.preschooleducation.com

Optional: This warm-up activity can also be performed using a flannel board. Simply cut out 5 orange felt pumpkins and a brown felt gate and place them on a flannel board. The children can participate by helping to count the pumpkins. In addition, the teacher can discuss prepositions of “on, under, beside” the gate.

Perform the following actions in ( ) while saying the words:

Five little Pumpkins (One hand up)
sitting on a gate.
The first one said (Point to thumb)
"My, it's getting late."
The second one said, (Pointer finger)
"There are witches in the air"
The third one said, (Middle finger)
"But we don’t care"
The forth one said, (Ring finger)
"We’ll run and run and run"
The fifth one said, (Little finger)
"It's just Halloween fun."
"Whooooo" went the wind
And out went the light (Clap hands)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of site.
(Roll arms)

• Vestibular

Cut out the pumpkin shapes and write a different locomotor task on each one. For example, jump, walk backward, gallop, etc. Place the paper pumpkins at one end of the room and attach them to a long green paper vine using clothespins. Tell the children they are going to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. Have 2-3 children at a time get a pumpkin from the “patch” (they remove the paper pumpkin by squeezing the clothespin). Then have them perform the locomotor skill written on the pumpkin as they move back across the room to where they were sitting.

• Proprioception

To help the children regroup after the vestibular task, have them sit in a circle and pass 2-3 real pumpkins, of various sizes, around the circle while seasonal music is playing. Discuss the weight of the pumpkins. Ask them “Which one is heaviest?”

• Balance

Give the children one sheet of newspaper to crumble into a ball shape. Then have them walk on a balance beam while carrying the newspaper. At the end of the beam, they can throw the paper into the commercial jack-o-lantern trash bag. Repeat several times.

• Eye-Hand Coordination

Use orange balloons for pretend pumpkins to volley back and forth to a partner. A Jack-o-Lantern face can be drawn on the balloon.

• Cool-Down

Read a book about pumpkins. Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor (Scholastic, 2000) is one example. Discuss going to the pumpkin patch and picking out a pumpkin. Talk about how pumpkins are different sizes and shapes. Explain that some people like to carve pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns and other people like to make and eat pumpkin pie.

• Fine Motor

Have the children tear tissue paper into small pieces and glue onto a paper plate. Then have them glue a green stem on. Use milk jug lids to put the glue in, and a Q-tip to dip into the glue. This develops good prehension skills for writing.

Materials

• (Optional) 5 orange felt pumpkins, 1 brown felt gate, flannel board
• Cut 12 pumpkins out of orange construction paper and write a different locomotor task on each one (examples – Hop, gallop, run, bear walk, crab walk)
• Long green bulletin board paper twisted into a “vine”
• Clothespins
• 2-3 real pumpkins
• CD/tape with seasonal music
• Balance beam
• Newspaper
• Commercial jack-o-lantern trash bags
• Orange balloons
• Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor (Scholastic, 2000)
• Small paper plates
• Orange tissue paper
• Pre-cut green stems
• Q-tips
• Glue
• Milk jug lids