I gushed in our summer recap that it was cooling off and the high temperatures here had dropped down to the 80s, but I spoke too soon. Our hot Texas summer keeps dragging on into fall, and it’s 99 degrees today in mid-October!
For those of you with little ones AND perfect autumn weather, here’s a fun fall pumpkin patch activity! If you’re lacking the perfect autumn weather like me, well, this is still a fun fall pumpkin patch activity. :) We had a great first visit to the pumpkin patch last year and can’t wait to continue our new family tradition this year. In the meantime, I thought it would be cute to make one of our very own!
We go to the sensory play day that our local library hosts once a month, and I always leave with a list of things I want to make for playtime at home. Like these discovery bottles I made when C was a baby that he STILL loves. Libraries are a great resource like that!
At the most recent sensory play day, there was a felt board with simple shape cutouts. I started getting all these ideas of what I could do with a felt board … after all, it’s such an easy way to make learning fun and interactive!
To recreate our fall pumpkin patch felt board, you’ll need:
- foam board
- felt
- hot glue gun
- scissors
- marker
I used an 18″ x 24″ sheet of white foam board and cut out the large piece of gray felt I got from the fabric department at the craft store so that it would wrap around the foam board at least an inch on all sides. Then I used a hot glue gun to attach the felt to the back of the board. Easy peasy. From here all you need to do is cut out some colorful felt shapes to stick on, and you’re ready to go!
I plan on using the board for a lot of different learning activities and to create other seasonal scenes. After this month, I’ll just pack up the pumpkin patch scene until next year.
Here’s an in-progress look at the tree coming together and my process. I picked out an assortment of felt sheets in autumn hues at the craft store. I sketched some freehand drawings out on a piece of paper first so I didn’t waste the felt and then just did the same thing on the felt with a marker. I didn’t mess with printing out any templates, but that would be a great option if you want a more polished look! It’s something I might consider doing for a future felt board activity. But for this project, my pumpkins and leaves aren’t all exactly the same, and I’m good with that. Just mimicking real life here, folks. ;)
I thought the pumpkin patch scene turned out really cute, and I promise it was easy to make! Seriously, this is how simple the scarecrow was: I made him entirely out of basic circle, triangle, square and rectangle shapes. I cut out circles for the head and eyes, triangles for the nose and hat (reshaped and rounded to look like a hat), squares for the patches and arms/legs/hair (fringed by cutting slits on each to resemble straw), and rectangles for the shirt and overalls (reshaped to resemble overalls of course). The owl is all circles and semicircles plus a diamond for the beak!
My little one has been enjoying his pumpkin patch for a couple of weeks now and loves the little owl most. He carries it around with him sometimes saying, “hoot, hoot.” I just let him rearrange the scene and “stick” the felt pieces on to his heart’s content. Felt sticks to itself so it’s easy to move around over and over.
I used the hot glue gun to assemble everything upfront since C is only 18 months old and I didn’t want to make the experience at all frustrating for him. But if you have older preschoolers, you could make it more challenging by having them put together the pieces to form the owl, the scarecrow and the carved pumpkin’s face.
I’ll talk through the scene with him and tell him about the colors of the leaves, how they change colors during autumn and fall off the trees, etc. We make owl sounds and “whoosh” sounds like the wind blowing leaves off the tree. I’ve created different scenes where there are just a few leaves left on the tree branches and the rest are in a pile below. There are so many opportunities for learning here! It gives you the opportunity to engage your little one and introduce new vocabulary too (scarecrows, why farmers use scarecrows, etc.). Mine has already seen a lot of pumpkins this fall and knows what they are, but it will be neat to point out the scarecrows to him when we’re at the pumpkin patch!
Some other ideas I have for using the felt board are to teach animals, shapes, letters, numbers, colors, you name it. Also to act out nursery rhymes and storybooks. I’ll plan on posting more of our boards as I make them, either here or on Instagram.
Do you already have a felt board at home or plan to make one now? How do you/will you use it? Please share with me in the comments below!
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Feltboards are so fun! You’ve done a great job on it :-)
Have lots of fun using it.
Thanks, Crystal! I’m looking forward to all of its possibilities :)
This is really fun! Pinning it to my fall board! Thanks for participating in our #creativekidsinstaparty! I also host a blog link party that starts Sunday evening at 10pm EST called Made for Kid! Would love for you to link up!
Hi, Kim! Thank you so much for checking out my fall pumpkin patch activity and for pinning! I’m so excited to have been chosen as a featured post in your Creative Kids Instagram Party. Thanks again, and I will come check out your blog link party and link up this week :)
Thanks for linking up at #made4kids! Hope you will join us again! :)
I will, Kim! Thanks for hosting!
This is so adorable for fall play. My son loved his felt board when he was little.
Aww! My son has been loving his too :) I’m excited to make more activities for it!
How cute! And so fun that the kids can change the fall decorations around each day if they want. What a fun DIY Halloween decoration idea
Thank you! Yes, the pumpkin patch scene does get changed around each day with my little one—sometimes the leaves are blowing about every which way, sometimes the owl is flying upside down, sometimes the moon is a banana … :)
Such a great idea! I might try it with my younger one.
I hope you give it a try! It’s a great learning tool that can be used over and over again.
This is so cute! What a fun felt board. I did a tree one but never thought to do a whole Halloween scene. Love it!
Thanks so much! The tree is my favorite part :)
I love felt boards! They are SO easy and cheap! This is adorable.
Yes, exactly! They have so much going for them :)
Thank you so much for your comment and stopping by!
So cute! This looks like something my daughter would get a kick out of!
Thank you for sharing with us at #mommymeetupmondays!
Thanks! My son certainly gets a kick out of it. I hope he doesn’t get tired of it anytime soon though because I have big plans for this felt board! :)
It turned out so great! What a fun, and inexpensive craft. I am going to try this with my daughter.
Thank you! I’m happy to hear you’re going to make one for your daughter. Easy, fun and inexpensive = perfect activity for little ones :)
This is awesome! I’m so doing a felt board for my toddler. I never realized how easy it would be to make. Thanks so much for this great idea. Visiting from Manic Mondays Blog Hop.
Thanks, Erin! I’m so glad you like the felt board and that you’re going to make one. I hope your toddler loves it as much as mine does!
This is an absolutely fantastic idea! And you can do it with anything! You should do felt boards for each season, it looks like a lot of fun. You’ve inspired me to try this and maybe have it on the wall in our daughters bedroom so she can play with it at will. You’re so creative! xx #sharewithme
Oh, so sweet of you to say! I definitely plan on doing new seasonal scenes for the felt board, as well as lots of other learning activities. I think it’s a great teaching tool. I hope you and your daughter have so much fun with it!
This looks great fun and reminds me of the days of Fuzzy felt. #sharewithme
Aww, nostalgia is wonderful, isn’t it? I wasn’t around for the days of Fuzzy-Felt, but I can see why it was so wildly popular. Felt play is such a simple yet fun activity for children. Now I need to get a hold of a Fuzzy-Felt kit! :)
I love felt boards too. This pumpkin patch one is SO creative and adorable! I especially love the scarecrow and the owl. Thanks for sharing it with the #made4kids linkup.
Thank you so much for your sweet words, Heather :)
What a cute craft. I like that they are easy to make and can be reusable each year if kept nice. This would be great for a teacher’s classroom.
I’m looking forward to using it throughout each year for different activities. I think it will last a long time, but the great thing is that it would only take a few minutes to make a new one if not. I’m going to make a couple more to switch out with so I can have a variety of background colors too!
We had felt boards when my kids were younger. They really enjoyed them. Our library also has great classes and workshops too. They are a great resource to parents.
Yes, libraries are such a great resource to parents! I’ve been impressed with all of the awesome children’s programs ranging from babies to teens. I’m glad we came across a felt board there—I know it will be a fun teaching tool throughout my son’s early childhood years.
Love this craft idea, so simple and fun!
Thank you! So glad you stopped by to check it out!
Ahh I love Fall and Halloween and all that it brings to decorating, having fun, carving pumpkins and pumpkin patches. This is such a cute craft project for it too. You are talented lady. Thank you ever so much for linking up to Share With Me. I hope to see you again tomorrow for another great round up and hope you have been enjoying the blog hop. #sharewithme
I love seeing all the fall decorations and enjoying all the fall activities too. It’s just such a fun time of year!
Thank you so much for choosing this activity as your Share With Me favorite feature. I’m so glad you love it as much as we do :) Looking forward to linking up again!
Hello, it’s very beautiful. I just have one question. How is it possible that the figures ‘stick’ on the felt board? I don’t understand.
Hi Shana, thanks for the question! When you place a felt shape onto your felt board, it will adhere to it temporarily and you can move the pieces around as many times as you want. The fibers in the felt kind of just cling to each other and “stick” together. We do usually play with our felt board at an angle (with the top slightly angled back, like if it were on an easel) to help the pieces stay put better. Otherwise, they can tend to slip down off the board every now and then while playing. Hope this helps!