Welcome to the Greentrike Playful Guide! Each month, we aim to bring families helpful information, resources, and even activities to help implement a little more play into their lives. September’s Playful Guide will be the final edition for 2024, but will return in 2025 with an all-new format!

Welcome Back, Play to Learn!

Play to Learn has officially returned for the fall season, and we can’t wait to greet both new and returning friends!

Play to Learn is a free program for children and adults to play together, offered at community locations such as libraries and community centers, throughout Pierce County. These sessions are for parents, grandparents, neighbors, family, and friends who nurture children ages six and under, with thematic curriculum that invites individual play, fun group activities, songs, and a whole group circle time for children and adults to enjoy together!

No registration is needed to attend – just check in at the front door and have fun! To learn more about Play to Learn and to find a session near you, visit Greentrike.org/play-to-learn. Whether it’s your family’s first time playing with us or whether you attend every day of the week, we can’t wait to welcome you into our circle!

Greentrike Events

Activity Highlight

You will need:

  • Pumpkin or squash
  • Knife and scooper
  • Bowl
  • Newspaper and paper towels
  • Paper and glue

Steps:

An illustration of an adult and child standing beside a pumpkin. The adult is holding up their index finger, and a question mark appears between the pair.

1. Begin by asking your child: “how many seeds are inside the pumpkin?” This is called a prediction.

An illustration of an adult with a pumpkin, which has had its top cut off. A child sits nearby with a spoon.

2. Cover a table with newspaper. Cut the pumpkin open and encourage your child to help clean out the insides and wash the seeds.

An illustration of an adult and child sitting side by side. The adult is pointing to a collection of pumpkin seeds laid out in front of them.

3. Count the number of pumpkin seeds and see how close your prediction was to the actual amount. For a simpler approach, pick up a handful of seeds, predict the number of seeds in your hand, and then count them.

4. For extra fun, glue pumpkin seeds to paper to make a collage. “How many seeds did you use in your collage?”

What are we learning?

Opening up a pumpkin and scooping out the seeds is an incredible sensory experience for children to learn through what they see, touch, and smell. Providing your child with opportunities for sensory play at home encourages curiosity and promotes fine motor skills.

Making predictions invites your child to use known information to make a best guess; an important skill for a scientist. Estimate is another mathematical term for prediction. Learning to estimate is an important arithmetic skill. Comparing predictions to the actual results improves future predicting and estimating abilities.

Counting a number of objects together develops math skills, like sequencing numbers, one-to-one correspondence (only counting an object once), and cardinality (knowing the number of objects in a set or group).