Roll A Pumpkin Game

Since I started blogging a trip to the shops has never been the same. Instead of heading straight for the toy section, I can now be found looking through the DIY section or the homeware department. Every day items make fantastic play and learning opportunities.

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When I spotted Orange Reusable Ice Cubes I knew they would make great pumpkins. Simply using a Black Fine Permanent Marker Pen, I created 18 pumpkins within moments. We could have left them as they were, as miniature Halloween decorations. However, I wanted to use them as a learning opportunity. So I made a Roll A Pumpkin Game.

I turned the pumpkin cubes over and wrote the numbers 1 to 9 on the first nine pumpkins. Then for the remaining cubes I added dots to represent each number. This meant the numbers 1 to 9 were represented in both numerals and dots. Throughout the day we played several different versions of Roll A Pumpkin.

Roll A Pumpkin Game Number 1:

Position the pumpkins upright. Player 1 rolls the dice and turns over that many pumpkins. Here Adam rolled a 4 and turned over 4 pumpkins.

Any matching numbers you get to keep. In the image above Adam matched the pumpkins with the numeral 7 and 7 dots. He got to keep those two pumpkins. The remaining pumpkins are positioned up right again.

Player 2 rolls the dice and turns over that many pumpkins. I rolled a two so turned over two pumpkins. My numbers did not match so I turned them over again and didn’t get to keep them.

Take it in turns until all of the pumpkins have been matched. The winner is the person with the most pumpkins at the end.

Roll A Pumpkin Game Number 2:

This game got Adam using his memory. He had to roll a dice and turn over just one pumpkin. If the numbers were the same then he got to keep the pumpkin. If not, then he had to turn the pumpkin back over again. Throughout the game Adam had to remember where the number 5 pumpkin was for when he rolled that number on the dice.

Adam also created his own games. He used the ice cube pumpkins to create shapes with, line them up and even try to stack them. I love the endless possibilities our reusable ice cube pumpkins have created.