Looking for fun Halloween gross motor activities for your little one? You have probably heard the classic Halloween poem “5 Little Pumpkins”. If you haven’t, it goes like this:
Five little pumpkins
Sitting on a gate
The first one said,
“Oh, my, it’s half past eight!”
The second one said,
“There are witches in the air!”
The third one said,
“Good folk, beware!”
The fourth one said,
“We’ll run and run and run!”
The fifth one said,
“Let’s have some fun!”
OOOOOOOH, went the wind
And OUT went the light
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight!
I thought it would be fun to get a little throwing practice in while reciting this fun little Halloween poem. My little one loved it – I’m sure yours will too!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: 5 balls (they can be different or the same, big or small – larger balls will make bigger targets for younger kids), empty water bottles
WHAT TO DO:
Place each ball on the top of an empty water bottle. (You could also use overturned plastic cups.) These will be your targets.
Give your child an object to toss — a bean bag, another soft ball, rolled up socks, even crumpled paper made into a ball.
Instruct him to stand 5’ away from the cones. As you recite the poem, have your child gently (we had to remind Nikolas about this word and what it meant a few times!!) throw a ball to one target at a time as each pumpkin is mentioned in the poem.
Tell him that he is trying to knock the pumpkins off of the fence! Can he aim at the targets? Can he get all five pumpkins off of the fence by the end of the poem so that they all “roll out of sight”?
HOW TO CHANGE IT UP:
-Use different size balls as targets. Larger balls will be easier to hit.
-Vary the distance from which your child throws. Try marking out 5 different spots in the “pumpkin patch” that they have to throw from.
-Practice throwing overhand and underhand.
-Practice catching skills by tossing the object back to your child each time.
SKILL AREAS ADDRESSED: coordination, gross motor skills, motor control
Check out this cute YouTube video of the 5 Little Pumpkins poem being read with animated pictures
Looking for more inspiration?
photo credit: libraryman via photopin cc text added, image cropped
