October 2020 – The Aerilyn Books Blog

Hands-On Activities for Kinesthetic Learners

Autumn is here! The air is getting crisper, the leaves are changing color, and we are looking forward to all the traditions of the season! Many of those seasonal traditions in our home involve pumpkins – decorating, crafting, painting, eating… we are all about pumpkins!

A favorite activity for my kids is Pumpkin Exploration. It’s a simple activity that is perfect for kids who like to get their hands messy and can easily allow for some additional education like counting and language-learning. We make a trip to our local pumpkin farm, taking our time to enjoy it and have fun (maybe even take a hay ride or pick apples if still in peak season!) and once we get home, we wash up and get ready to explore.

We used a small pie pumpkin for this activity.

What you need:
🔹 A small pumpkin
🔹 Some newspaper to protect your work surface
🔹 A spoon for scooping
🔹 A bowl for collecting the seeds

What you do:
🔸Cut the pumpkin in half
🔸Explore the inside of the pumpkin, with hands or spoon
🔸Count and remove seeds and place in the bowl
🔸Play with, remove, and discard pulp

My preschooler has fun removing the seeds and pulp with a spoon.

Language-Booster:
While exploring the pumpkin, talk about what you see: seeds, pulp, and flesh. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce or review vocabulary, discuss how plants grow from seeds, and think about where healthy foods come from.

Math:
Count the seeds you find in the pumpkin, compare quantities (how many seeds were in one half? how many in the other half? which number is greater? etc.), and make number groups (groups of 5, 10, 20…).

After exploring, we make diagrams to record what we learned.

Pumpkin Diagram

After my kids are done exploring their pumpkin, we discard the pulp and clean the seeds, and we make our own diagrams to record what we learned. You’re going to want to keep your surface covered in the newspaper for this activity, too.

What you need:
🔹 A piece of blank paper
🔹 Some orange washable and non-toxic acrylic paint
🔹 A paint brush
🔹 Cotton balls
🔹 Liquid glue
🔹 Clean pumpkin seeds

What you do:
🔸Paint the shape of the pumpkin on paper
🔸Create “pulp” by gently stretching out cotton balls, and paint orange
🔸Glue “pulp” and seeds inside the painted pumpkin shape

My niece had fun gluing seeds on her diagram.

Making a diagram is a great way to retain information and record observations made during the exploration activity, while exercising creativity, and allows your child to look back on the activity at a later date to recall what they learned. It’s a great introduction to the scientific method!

Pumpkin Spice Hotteok

While the glue on the diagrams are drying, we prepare to cook the pumpkin. There are so many wonderful pumpkin recipes out there, so take your pick! This time, we made Pumpkin Spice Hotteok (호박 호떡).

Making pumpkin puree is super easy and can be used to make a variety of delicious foods. Hotteok (호떡) is a popular Korean pancake filled with sweet syrup and nuts, perfect for chilly days – and when combined with pumpkin and spices, is a delicious fusion between Korean and American flavors.

To make the pumpkin puree, make sure the outside of the pumpkin is washed well, sprinkle the flesh with some salt, and place cut-side down on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Roast the pumpkin in the oven at 400 degrees F until easily pierced with a fork and the skin pulls away from the flesh (45 to 60 minutes). Once cool enough to handle, process with a food processor or blender until smooth. That’s it! It’s ready to use in your favorite recipe!

While still warm, we used our fresh pumpkin puree in our Pumpkin Spice Hotteok recipe, and topped it with whipped cream, maple syrup, and honey butter. They were absolutely delicious and helped to close our day of activities!

The kids enjoyed every last bite of the pumpkin spice hotteok!

Taking the kids through all three activities, from whole pumpkin to tasty dessert, helps them to appreciate that journey from farm to table. They get to be involved in every part of that journey with these exploration activities: picking the pumpkin, exploring the fruit, recording their observations, and even cooking! And along the way they practice math, language, science, and art. It’s a well-rounded educational experience perfect for an autumn Sunday!

I hope you and your kids have fun with these activities, and that they can become a tradition in your home, too. Until next time!

Pumpkin Spice Hotteok Recipe

Servings: 8
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Rest Time: 90 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Dough:

2-1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (1 package)

1/3 cup warm water

2tbsp white sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup warm whole milk

1/2 cup warm pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)

1-3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup sweet rice flour

1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

Filling:

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

3 tbsp finely chopped pecans

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

To make the dough, add white sugar, vegetable oil, and yeast to 1/3 cup warm water in a large bowl. (Make sure water is not too hot, so you don’t kill the yeast.) Let sit for 10 minutes, until foamy.

Add milk and pumpkin puree to the yeast mixture. Then sift all purpose flour, sweet rice flour, spices, and salt into the bowl and mix together until well incorporated. The dough should be sticky.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).

Punch down the dough and reshape into a ball and let rise again for another 30 minutes.

While the dough is rising for a second time, prepare the filling by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and mixing well.

Punch down the dough again and knead. Lightly grease your hands with vegetable oil and tear off pieces of dough, roughly 2 inches in diameter.

Flatten each ball of dough into a flat disk and fill with a couple spoonfuls of the filling. Then bring up the edges like a coin purse and pinch to seal and place sealed-side down on a plate.

Heat enough vegetable oil in a frying pan to fry the hotteok, over medium heat. Flatten filled dough into a flat disk and gently place in the hot oil. Cook on each side until golden brown, then transfer for a plate lined with paper towels to remove excess oil.

While still hot, dust each hotteok with powdered sugar (optional).

Enjoy hot!

Note: Hotteok can be frozen for up to 3 months and reheated in a microwave or toaster oven to enjoy any time you like!

Enjoy this Pumpkin Spice Hotteok as-is, or with a variety of toppings.

These Pumpkin Spice Hotteok are delicious as-is, but we also love to enjoy them with toppings like whipped cream, maple drizzle, or even vanilla ice cream – there is no wrong way to indulge with these! I hope you love this recipe as much as we do. Until next time!