Pine Cones and Pumpkins

 

I came up with the basic idea for this super simple activity using pine cones and pumpkins on a whim, and I was surprised how much fun E had with it and how she put her own spin on it.

 

(E was 3 years old.)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Thank you for your support!

 

 

 

For our gross motor activity with pine cones and pumpkins, we used

• pine cones
• assorted pumpkins
• small box for the pine cones
• large plastic box

 

 

 

I simply put a bunch of pine cones I’d picked up in our backyard in a small box. There happened to be a large storage box on the other side of the backyard, and I suggested running over to place the pine cones in the large box. E LOVED the idea – and she didn’t just grab the small box to dump them all either 😉

 

 

 

 

After running back and forth a few times, the small box was empty but there were still more {way more!} pine cones lying around the backyard, and E extended the fun by getting more to throw in the large storage box.

 

 

When she thought she’d put enough pine cones in

 

 

she started running to where we had a bunch of pumpkins sitting on a low wall, and went back and forth several times to carry them over one at a time.

 

 

 

She carefully arranged the pine cones and pumpkins in the box

 

 

but when she added more pumpkins, she noticed that there wasn’t room to put them all in one layer. She rearranged

 

 

until she was able to fit the last pumpkin with all the pine cones and other pumpkins – it was almost like a puzzle 😉

 

 

I really love how E turned my simple prompt into her own kind of game, hardly noticing all the exercise she got while exploring the natural items we had in our backyard. Of course, activities requiring no preparation and making no mess are always great in their own right 🙂

 

 

 

 How have you played with pine cones and/or pumpkins? Do you have any fun gross motor ideas using natural materials to keep kids moving this fall? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

 

If you liked this post, come follow me on Pinterest to keep up to date with all we do, and for lots of great ideas from others! Or like and drop me a line on my Facebook page, where I share my own posts and those of others every day!