Felt Jack-o'-Lantern

What You Need:

• Orange felt
• Black felt
• Scissors
• Foam core board or cardboard (optional)
• Glue (optional)

What You Do:

1. Before involving your child, cut a saucer-sized pumpkin out of orange felt. Next, cut out a variety of eyes, mouths, and noses. Be sure to cut out two of each eye shape to give your child a chance to match the shapes. Also, be sure to include the pieces needed for a full range of expressions – happy, sad, angry, surprised, etc.
2. Give the felt cut-outs to your child and ask her to match up the eyes. 
3. Which eyes look happy? After she has made her choice, ask her to select a happy mouth and assemble a jack-o’-lantern. Does it look happy? If not, have her try a different set of eyes or mouth or flip one of them over. 
4. Repeat step 3 to create a sad jack-o’-lantern, an angry jack-o’-lantern, and a surprised jack-o’-lantern. How does the expression change if she flips the eyes right to left or top to bottom? What about turning the mouth upside down? 
5. Now that she has a feel for what pieces work best to create each emotion, have her mix and match. What happens if she pairs happy eyes with a surprised mouth? Or, uses two different eyes?

Make this into a travel game by gluing the pumpkin onto a piece of cardboard or a foam core board.  Slip everything into a zippered plastic bag and your child is ready for some travel fun.