Exploring Pumpkins

Core Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment

  •  A large pumpkin or squash with a hole in the top, with some metal spoons and a bowl for the innards.
  • OR a cut-up chunk of pumpkin or squash for each child, with the strings, seeds etc attached.
  • It would be super to have part of the vine, and some vine leaves to explore, and associate with whatever was growing on it.

Possible/Expected Discoveries

  • Pumpkins are the fruit of the pumpkin vine.
  •  Do you think this pumpkin is heavier than a chair? Heavier than a child?
  • Predict weather a piece of yarn will go all the way around the circumference of the pumpkin, predict whether the pumpkin will sink or float, describe how the pumpkin looks, smells and feels, scoop out the insides and examine them. Predict how many seeds will be inside, or in a certain part.
  • Vocabulary: squishy, slimy, mushy, stem, skin, meat, pulp, seeds, ribs
  • Cut up some pumpkin pieces and cook with a little water. What will happen? Why? 

Extended Learning and Other Curriculum Areas

  • Plant some seeds in plastic or paper cups.
  •  Count seeds. Create simple sets and compare: more, less; equal, not equal.
  • Stuff paper lunch bags with newspaper; tie the stem with yarn, and paint orange and green. Create a “pumpkin patch” on the wall or a table. Add vines and leaves. Write dictated “stories”, and read them together.
  • Draw some sequences for children to order: e.g. seed to pumpkin; making a pie.

Activity Packs and Printables

Pumpkins center/flashcards 0-10.
Pumpkins center/flashcards 0-10.
Make pumpkin seed sets to 10.
Make pumpkin seed sets to 10.
Pumpkins 1 - theme pack for preschool and pre-K. $3.75
Pumpkins 1 - theme pack for preschool and pre-K. $3.75
Pumpkins 2 - theme pack for preschool and pre-K
Pumpkins 2 - theme pack for preschool and pre-K. $3.75
Pumpkins life-cycle activities pack - 42 pages
Pumpkins life-cycle activities pack - 42 pages. $4.50
Picture
Pumpkin bingo dauber printables to 15. $2.50

Websites

​http://www.pumpkinnook.com/cookbook.htm
http://www.creativekidsathome.com/activities/activity_41.shtml
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins/
​Pumpkins theme activities and printables

Books

​Mousekin's Golden House, by Edna Miller
Growing Pumpkins Macmillan Early Science Books
Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington
Hello, Mr. Scarecrow by Rob Lewis
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll