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Plunger Paint Pumpkin Patch

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I don't remember where I first heard about the fabulous "plunger painting", but it is a wonderful activity for the children. I don't have the plungers available all of the time, so that when they do appear... they are a treat! 

I apologize  for a few blurry photos here. (I didn't realize that the camera was switched to auto-focus). I casually set a couple of plungers in the play room.  "Ms. Amy, what are these?"
"I don't know, what do you think they are?"

"Can we play with them?"
"Of course you can play with them....."
The children find all kinds of ways to play with them..... It is great fun if you have different types of flooring for them to explore. It took very little time before they were able to investigate enough to realize that the plungers stick to the linoleum floor if you push down on them:
But, they don't stick to the carpet..... Hmmmmm..... I wonder? 
Can I get two of them to stick together? 
After some indoor exploration, we took them outside with a bucket of sidewalk paint. 
Look at that! It's a circle!
Uh-OH!!!! Mine is stuck in the paint!!! Can someone help?
We're making a pumpkin patch!
I'm going to color my pumpkin purple.
Look at all of those pumpkins!
I wonder what it will look like if we dump some paint too?
I bet we could step in it and make footprints too!
Lots of plunger print pumpkins and fun little foot prints right outside our door!

A few notes on the plungers: 
     Of course, we only use clean never touched the toilet or drain plungers. I found these ones at our Dollar Tree. Sometimes it is difficult to find the traditional type plunger, but those ones work best. (Some of the newer ones have a different head on them that is not as open.) 
     As a "loose" part, plungers are great. The children found all sorts of fun ways to use them. One of the older children is working on the "blue prints" for a giant bow and arrow.... They spark all kinds of creativity! 
    As children explore, they learn that the plungers stick to some things, and not to others. This leads to hours of exploration. Why does it stick here? I wonder if it will stick there.... AND when it gets stuck, it takes the use of muscle power to set it free again. Sometimes children need to ask for help from their friends in order to make that happen. Then, not only is the activity great for motor skills, but also for children's social skill development. 


I hope you have as much fun playing with plungers as we have!

This post was linked up over at:

PreK + K Sharing
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I love the creativity here, with the plunger prints, and footprints. The children evidently thoughly enjoyed this!
And it looks like a great fall day for this!
We have a few plungers at our center,but I wasn't sure I liked them, but you describe the kind of exploration and discovery that can happen with plungers so well, I'll have to give them another thought!
Brenda
Brenda
October 17, 2011 at 10:51 PM
Aimee said…
That is such a fun idea! Thanks for linking up to the Sunday Showcase
October 19, 2011 at 9:18 PM
Carolyn said…
Looks like the kids had a lot of fun with plunger painting...a different way for them to learn and explore. I like it...looks great!
October 30, 2011 at 11:54 PM
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