Pool Noodle Apples and Pumpkins
Fall is officially here! Recently we had the opportunity to visit a local farm and enjoyed a great time picking out a variety of apples and pumpkins. I made some pool noodle apples and pumpkins with the kids to extend our fun at home and wanted to share this simple craft as well as all the learning fun we have completed using them.
These pool noodles apples were so simple and inexpensive to make. They require minimal supplies. You only need pipe cleaners, straws, and a pool noodle. Using a knife and cutting board, I sliced up a red pool noodle and poked a hole on top for the kids to insert their straws. The kids enjoy cutting up the straws themselves as the pieces tend to fly everywhere and that can be pretty hilarious. To make the leaves, they coiled green pipe cleaners and then poked them into the sides of their “apples.”
These pool noodle pumpkins also required only three materials. This time, we used yarn instead of green pipe cleaners as yarn looks more like the tendrils on a pumpkin. Depending on how thick you slice your pool noodle, you can easily get between 20-30 pumpkins per pool noodle. We made enough to fill two muffin pans with extra. As a bonus, kids can receive a lot of shoe tying practice by tying all the yarn into bows.
I brought out some of my bakeware and the kids made apple pies, pumpkin cupcakes, doughnuts, bread, and even a pumpkin cheesecake. I love to bake and my kids are often very involved with the process, from helping me to measure and mix to pouring the batter into the pans. If there is a rolling pin and lots of flour involved, it’s always a bonus for them. It is amazing what they pick up just from watching. My preschooler remembered that I always line my pans with parchment paper so asked for some to line her pans. She also noticed that I tap my pans before placing them in the oven (to get rid of air bubbles and create smoother cakes) so she would also do this before putting her baked goods in her play oven.
Plastic cups and some fun halloween goblets we recently found at the Dollar Tree contained apple and pumpkin cider. They had a blast hosting many pretend fall picnics and parties last week.
I added our Pumpkin Number Sense Cards and my preschooler worked on a lot of counting as well as matching ten frames and tally marks.
I added clothespins with price tags and brought out some personalized play money for more math fun. To challenge my third grader who is currently working on multiplication and division in his class, I gave him various amounts of money and asked how many apples, pies, loaves of bread, etc. could he buy with x amount of money.
My toddler (almost 2) enjoyed stacking her apples and pumpkins. This was a great way for her to work on sorting by object type and color. She also enjoyed pulling everything apart and inserting everything back together which was a wonderful way to work on strengthening her fine motor skills. My kids also used double sided tape to stack their apples and pumpkins to the wall to see how tall they were, recreating the fun height charts we recently saw from our visit to the farm. Pictured is my first grader with her jack-o’-lantern teeth.
I reused our felt board from my daughter’s recent Jasmine birthday and turned it into a pumpkin patch simply by attaching adhesive velcro dots to the back of the pool noodle pumpkins. This was a great way to work on early addition and subtraction with my preschooler. We planted pumpkins (added them to the patch) and picked pumpkins (subtracting them from the patch). I also created some simple arrays for my first and third grader to identify for early multiplication practice.
We worked on comparing quantities. I just used cut up pipe cleaners to form the greater, lesser than, and equal signs. This was a great way to introduce the concept of greater or less than to my preschooler. I used larger quantities for my first grader and wrote numbers on them for both my first and third grader to add together on each side before solving to adapt this activity to their learning needs.
I created patterns for my preschooler to complete. My first and third grader also enjoyed this activity and made their own patterns to solve. Recognizing patterns helps kids to learn how to reason, problem solve, and make educated guesses. It really is an important activity that helps kids to become critical thinkers.
This sensory bin took all of five minutes to put together and was made primarily for my toddler but truth be told, ended up being enjoyed by all. They enjoyed scooping, measuring, and making pretend apple oatmeal to serve to each other. My toddler loved taking the apples apart and inserting the green straws as well as black bean “raisins” into the holes of the pool noodles which was another great way for her to work on her fine motor development.
I made pumpkins out of orange slices for water play outside. This was incredibly easy. Simply slice up an orange, loop a green pipe cleaner to the top, twisting and curling it a bit at the tip to create a pumpkin stem. I left the rind on most of the orange slices and cut off the rinds on some and had the kids guess which “pumpkin” would float and sink. This was a great STEM activity as they all guessed wrong! We also sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon to the water for some added sensory fun.
Using some Sharpies, I turned clementines into little pumpkins. My kids adored them and have really enjoyed them in their school lunches and for after school snacks.
Lastly I cut up carrots into pumpkins by simply slicing carrots first into round pieces then cutting off two small triangles on top. This is a simple way to make meals a bit more special and fun. As the weather turns a little cooler, I like adding them to our favorite chili, beef stew, and chicken noodle soup and packing it into the kids’ thermos for their school lunch.
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I create more fun educational printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.
If your child or classroom makes these pool noodle apples or pumpkins, I would love to see how you use them! Please tag me @sodangfun on Instagram or use hashtag #sodangfun on social media.
I hope this post inspires you to enjoy some simple hands-on learning fun with your kids this fall!
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