Hide and Seek with Pumpkins (A Storybook Activity)

I’ve mentioned before that Pook and I love Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin. We’ve read it countless times again this fall. As a parent/teacher, I like the educational aspect of any book. This book uses location words (in, on top of, under, etc…) in a natural setting which provides a perfect learning opportunity for toddlers and preschoolers.

I decided to extend this learning by creating yet another game with some of our mini pumpkins (Hide and Seek).

I hid a handful of mini pumpkins in our back yard in places where I could describe their hiding spot using some of the same location words found in the book.

such as “in” the leaf pile

“under” the bench

“on top of” the rock (next to the tree)

Because Pooky is not quite three, I chose hiding places that were still in plain sight. This activity has the added benefit of working on “pattern recognition.” (Which one doesn’t belong?)

After she found all the pumpkins, Pook took a turn hiding them. As I found each one, I again used the location words to describe where they were.

Pooky enjoyed the hide and seek part of the game, and I liked the educational opportunity it presented.

Variations on this activity:

play it indoors
for older kids, make the hiding spots more difficult and use location words as clues
have older kids hide them and use location words to describe their location
discuss and use other location words (behind, beside, above, etc…)

Here are some more fun pumpkin activities to do with mini pumpkins.