Musical Pumpkins

Do you remember back in March that I shared with you the musical shamrock activity that we did with our grandkids?

They really enjoyed that activity.

“Well,” I thought, “if they like that activity so much why not do a similar activity for Halloween? Only do musical pumpkins instead?”

Musical pumpkins indeed!

I love it when I get great ideas . . . ahem . . . well at least I think they’re great ideas . . .

So we played musical pumpkins and had a rockin’ good time.

I’m glad to report that the grandkids loved this as much as they loved the shamrock game!

Huzzah! It was a successful game.

Pirates and ballerinas participated. I love their costumes! (The pirates had wooden saber swords that they put down while we played. Those swords were SO clever!)

Let me tell you what I did.

I printed up pictures of pumpkins on orange paper. (Here is a copy of the free printable for the pumpkins for you to use for your own musical pumpkin game.)

I wrote the numbers one through six on the papers. Since I had 16 pages of pumpkin faces, there were several pumpkin papers with the same number. Which was good because that meant there was the possibility of more kids standing on a rolled number which meant more kids doing the specified activity.

You can play the music of the Monster Mash by Bobby Checkett on YouTube. (Remember that song? I think it’s a great song! Not spooky or scary but fun.)

I wrote down six different activities: say Happy Halloween, clap your hands over your head 3 times, make a monster face, move like a tree blowing in the wind, jump up and down 4 times, cackle like a witch. (You could do whatever activities you’d like.)

I played the music and randomly stopped the music. One of my grandchildren rolled a dice. I called out the activity that corresponded with the number shown on the dice. Any children standing on a pumpkin with the same number that was rolled had to do that activity.

I started the music again, stopped it, and had a different grandchild roll the dice. Everyone standing on that number did the activity.

As you can see, I pushed my kitchen table as close to the wall as possible to give us as much space as possible. Since my grandkids aren’t very big, the smallish size was okay. If we do this activity when they are bigger, we might have to do it outside!

We only played this for about 10  minutes because their attention span was waning. Which was okay. I’d rather end an activity while everyone was having fun instead of dragging it out until everyone was tired of it. I feel that kids will remember the activity with fondness if they end on a high note.

I hope you have fun playing musical pumpkins with YOUR grandkids!