If you have construction paper and markers/crayons in your house, you are in business for making an easy pumpkin patch match activity for your kiddos. You seriously only need seconds to prep this seasonal activity that’s perfect for toddlers through school-aged kids to practice sight words, letter recognition, or math problems. Perhaps you’ve been to a pumpkin patch or two; now take your fall fun to the table for an easy and engaging learning-at-home activity.
Materials
- Green {or white} paper for the “patch”
- Green marker or crayon
- Pumpkin cutouts — foam stickers or cut out your own {or completely up your game and cool mom factor by using candy pumpkins for snacking while playing!}
- Craft paper for game cards
- Optional :: Extra pumpkins for writing words, letters, or numbers on them instead of flipping cards
Prep
- Draw vines and leaves to create a patch on your paper. Write letters, sight words, numbers around the vines. Make sure they are small enough to be covered by your pumpkins.
- Cut craft paper into squares and write math problems, letters, or words that match those on the patch.
Play
Take turns flipping cards and grabbing a pumpkin to place over appropriate letter, word, or number. Practice reading words, identifying letter sounds, or saying the math facts out loud.
Everyone is a winner here, but for the competitive group, make two boards and see who finishes first. This would work best with the writing on the pumpkin pieces themselves in order to check your work.
Additional learning ::
- Capital and lower case letter matching
- Focus on letters in your child’s name. Write those letters multiple times and cover all before moving on.
- Practice letter sounds. Call out a sound and cover appropriate letter.
- Match vocabulary definitions on the cards to words on the patch.
Feeling inspired? Take your learning outside and have some educational fun with your pumpkin before carving!
