Playing together is one of the best ways to connect with your children as well as help them learn. This playful and hands-on learning helps children to grasp ideas, work through concepts and concretes the knowledge as most children are kinesthetic learners – or learn as they do. For this week’s theme of Pumpkins for the Virtual Book Club for Kids we are sharing a traditional game with a pumpkin twist this Pumpkin Shape Memory Game will help your child learn 4 of the basic shapes – circle, square, triangle and oval as well as work on turn taking and help them improve their spatial awareness and memory.
Favourite Pumpkin Book
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Inspired by the book why not create your own flip book version with the kids with our 5 Little Pumpkins DIY Book.
Materials Needed
Join our Book-Based Activities for Kids Newsletter to download your Pumpkin Memory Shape Cards or purchase a set in our store to download and print.
Join our Toddler and Preschool Newsletter
Join our Toddler and Preschool Activities Newsletter and receive this Pumpkin Shape Game as a gift from us plus extra resources throughout the year.
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Cardstock
Printer
Laminator (optional) but will make the cards harder wearing
Why not get creative with some more Halloween Themed Crafts check out the video below for a really simple Halloween Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers that you they can make together.
Preparation
The Pumpkin Shape Memory Game comes with 4 different shapes and 6 copies of each of them. For younger toddlers, I would recommend just using 2 copies so 8 cards in total but as they get older and used to the game increase the number of cards that you add to the game.
Print out the number of cards you wish to use and cut out – laminate if you wish this will make them harder wearing. An alternative and one that we used when the kids were little was to glue them onto an Amazon delivery box and cut them out from there this made the cards hardwearing and easier for little hands to turn over and play with.
What to play next – Pumpkin Patch Number Game to make and play.
Playing the Pumpkin Shape Memory Game
Start by showing the different shapes to your child – square, circle, triangle, and oval and getting them to recognise them in pumpkin form.
Once they are familiar set out the game with the number of cards you have chosen with the cards face down.
Now take turns selecting 2 cards to make a pair.
When you have the pair remove the cards.
The winner is the one who has the most cards at the end of the game.
Continue playing together reviewing the shapes as you go along.
Fine even more ideas for Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers with Pumpkins
More Pumpkin Themed Activities to Connect and Create with Books
The Virtual Book Club for Kids is a weekly themed series organised by myself here at Rainy Day Mum, Kim from The Educators’ Spin On It and Kristina from Toddler Approved. Each week we coordinate a group of other educators and parents to bring you fun ways to connect and learning with books. Find out more about the series as well as future themes and featured books here.
You can join along with us either by
- Becoming a member of our Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook Group where you will find other parents, educators and carers all being inspired to create and connect with books each week.
OR
- Join our Book Based Activities Newsletter and get your weekly theme straight to your inbox plus access to our free printables like these Pumpkin Shape Memory Cards in your weekly newsletter.
Join our Toddler and Preschool Newsletter
Join our Toddler and Preschool Activities Newsletter and receive this Pumpkin Shape Game as a gift from us plus extra resources throughout the year.
Please see our Data Protection and Privacy Policy for more information about how we collect and process your personal data
This week’s activities for Pumpkin Week are
Pin this Pumpkin Math Game to Download and Print Later
H.Forster says
I like that game. As a little I could play it for hours. Now I will show it to my children.
Katrina says
Oh this would have been a great game for Halloween. Now we’ll just have to play it another day when we maybe pick pumpkin as a theme. We occasionally pick interesting vegetables and fruits as a theme and play things around it. One of the games we played for Halloween was based on a worksheet (http://www.jumpstart.com/common/count-the-pumpkins), but we lined up real pumpkins in various sizes. The kids loved it. We’re going to print out your game and play it. Thanks very much!