We have 2 small baking pumpkins just waiting for us to use to make homemade cookies and pumpkin pie with this weekend. I looked at the inside of the pumpkin and wondered if my kids would like playing with the slim. Since we do not celebrate halloween or carve pumpkins my kids have never really touched the inside slime of the pumpkins.
So I had opened one a few days ago and took out the insides and put them in a pan.My 2 and 4-year-old went to town.
Squishing the pumpkin slime between their little fingers. Feeling the different textures.
Next I had them sort, placing all the seeds in one pan and all the pumpkin slim in another pan.
They thought the texture of the slime was gross but where happy to sort the seeds because they knew I had a treat for them with the seeds — roasted pumpkins seeds! This was a fun sensory for them, no fuss of making a bin and gathering items. This one was all stemmed from nature!
Sunday: Under the Table and Dreaming, Heart Nap Time, Flamingo Toes, Nifty Thrifty Things, DIY Show Off, Homemaker on a Dime, Piggy in Polka Dots, By Stephanie Lynn, 1+1+1=1, Sunday Showcase
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Wednesday: It’s Overflowing, DYI by Design, Southern Lovely, Vintage Gwen, Artsy Play,Creations by Kara, High Heels and Grills, Ginger Snap Crafts, Someday Crafts, Polka Dots on Parade, 36th Avenue, Life with the Crust Cut Off, Toddly Mummy, Rainy Day Mum, Simply Designing,
Thursday: The 36th Avenue, Shabby Creek Cottage, Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, Artsy Fartsy Mama, 52 Mantels, No Minimalist Here, live laugh rowe, Imparting Grace, The Girl Creative, Somewhat Simple, The Frugal Girls, Kid’s Activity Blog, Lessons Learned Journal
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Saturday: Cheerios and Lattes, Crafty Moms Share, Sugar Ants, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Tatertots and Jello, Or so she says, Your Homebased Mom, Too Much Time on my Hands, I Can Teach My Child

What a fun exploration idea. We also use pumpkin seeds to count, we 10 seeds in a small Dixie cup and put ten of them in a big plastic cup and keep repeating til we’ve counted all the seeds. It helps to teach counting by 10x. This year we had 641 seeds!
My kids always loved those sorts of experiences with pumpkins when they were little! Thanks for hosting Learn and Link, Nicole! π
Looks like they had a lot of fun playing with pumpkin seeds!
Love this! We do this every year with my kids and they also did it in school this year! One of my kids pumpkins had over 400 seeds in it!! That’s a lot of seeds!
My girls love playing with the ‘guts’, and I do have some seeds saved to bake today. Love me some pumpkin seeds!
oh fun, baked pumpkin seeds sounds delicious!
What a great idea, I never thought of this being a sensory activity!
Great easy activity idea:)
love fun sensory play ideas, thank you! my kids are pretty good about sensory stuff but they all 3 draw the line at pumpkin goo. it’s all mommy for that. LOL
Fresh roasted pumpkin seeds are the best! I agree with your kids…the slime is icky feeling.
My kids really enjoyed playing inside our pumpkin this year. Last year, not so much. LOL
Oh what fun. This was the first year we didn’t carve pumpkins and I missed it so much! My kids totally love the feeling of the insides! HA
I was so scared to touch things like this as a kid because of the slimy texture, so I understand your kids’ comments. π I love that you are encouraging your kids to be so adventurous with their senses so they can see that it might be slimy, but it’s not scary at all!
I’m excited to see what your little family decided to whip up with those pumpkins! I love anything pumpkin any time of the year, but especially during the fall. π
Sensory play is so important in the development of little minds. I like simple ways like this that don’t require lots of special ingredients.
I don’t think I was brave enough to touch the slime when I was a kid, but I always enjoyed roasted pumpkin seeds.
This looked like a lot of fun and educational too! My kids all love to feel the insides of the pumpkins and who doesn’t love roasted pumpkin seeds!
It looks like they had a lot of fun.
This is such a great idea. We let my son {age 3} play with the pumpkin insides during our carving session and he loved it.
Looks like fun. I will need to remember to come back and link up.
My boys have a ball helping me scoop out the pumpkin seeds even though it is slimy,
What a fun activity!!!
This looks like a bunch of fun – I don’t even have children and I’d love to do this. π
The simple explorations from nature-no fuss, no expensive cost-just always seem to entertain and teach children the best! So glad this was a great exploration for them. My kids just love it too!
Children really do love to eat pumpkin seeds! I think I have never met a child who did not like them.
As weird and ewwwwy as it is, I think it’s still one of the best parts about carving a pumpkin.
Love impromptu sensory experiences! My kids would have loved the gooey stuff, but they are weird like that lol!
Oooh now that looks like it would be a ton of fun for the kiddos. What a great idea! It’s fun getting messy too sometimes!
this is such a great idea my daughter would love these sensory learning ideas.
Thats a fun idea! At school we did something like this but she used those slime balls you get in the dime machines. It was so gross but fun!
Way to have some extra fun with that pumpkin π Thanks for sharing at After School!
My daughter loved cleaning out the pumpkins this year!