Activity
Color-by-shape pumpkins
Build tactile graphics skills, coloring skills, and shape skills with this fun pumpkin-themed activity!
It’s fall, ya’ll and pumpkins are everywhere! Young students will enjoy coloring the various shapes to make these pumpkin faces. This worksheet can be printed on Swell paper and run through a PIAF or Swell machine to create the raised lines. Students can practice identifying and coloring the different shapes.
Tactile skills
As always, have the student explore a real pumpkin first. Ask him/her to describe the pumpkin’s main characteristics. Be sure to include the shape of a pumpkin, the stem and the ribs. Have the student tactually explore a jack-o’-lantern, ideally with cut out shapes. Identify the mouth, nose and eyes. Next, introduce the tactile version of the plain pumpkin and then the tactile version of the jack-o’-lantern. What is different? Discuss that the pumpkin has ribs, but the ribs are not included on the jack-o’-lantern image because the extra lines make the image too cluttered.
Crayon identification
Students who are unable to visually identify crayon colors should use an alternative method to label the crayons. If the student knows braille, adhere a sticky-backed braille label to each crayon. If the student does not read braille words, then be creative! Attach a ribbon to the red crayon, yarn to yellow crayon, bead to the black crayon, glue dot to the green crayon. (Example: Use a hot glue gun to adhere the yarn – wrap the yarn several times around the end of the crayon. For items like the bead, glue the bead to the bottom (end) of the crayon.) Color the pumpkin faces using this key:
- Triangle is red
- Circle is black
- Rectangle is yellow
- Square is green
Remember that once the student colors the worksheet, the student will not be able to identify the color of the crayon that he/she used on the worksheet, as crayons all have the same texture. The goal with this activity is to provide the student a way to complete the same worksheet as his/her peers. Remember, the real goal of the worksheet is to identify each shape and to provide practice coloring (fine motor skills).
Same and different
Print two tactile versions of this worksheet. Cut out each pumpkin. Students can match the corresponding pumpkins. When given two of the same pumpkins and one different, the student can identify which two are the same (or which one is different).
Resources
- Pumpkin plain coloring page download
- Pumpkin Worksheet download (4 different jack-o’-lanterns with shapes for eyes and nose)
- Creating Tactile Graphics Images Part 8: Multiple Pumpkin Worksheets post
- Pumpkin Life Cycle Lesson: Presentation (PowerPoint) post
- Noelle’s Pumpkin: Fall Themed Digital Book for Early Readers post
