Pumpkin Preschool Activities

I had the pleasure of teaching a pumpkin themed lesson today for our preschool coop. We had so much fun!

Here are some of the fun things we did today with pumpkins:

Pumpkin Sensory Bin

I filled a plastic bin with decorative pumpkins and gourds, pasta, and Fall foam characters. Hanna enjoyed scooping things out of the bin and putting them in other things. Ellie discovered that when you rubbed two pumpkins together they made a cool sound. We also measured some of the items in the bin.

Pumpkin Measuring

I put mini pumpkins out on the table with different kinds of measuring tapes and rulers so that the kids could measure. Ellie also had fun measuring the items in the sensory bin. We even measured one of our giant pumpkins.

Pumpkin Snack

I served pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins, cuties (because they look like pumpkins!), and pumpkin O’s from Trader Joe’s.

Pumpkin Painting Craft

Paper plates, red and yellow paint, paint brushes, green paper, green pipe cleaners, pencil, stapler.

I showed the kids how red and yellow mix to make orange then we painted our pumpkins with washable paints. I cut the center out of a paper plate to make a circle. After the kids painted their pumpkins I wrapped a green pipe cleaner around a pencil to make it curly and stapled the pipe cleaner and a green paper stem to the top of their pumpkin. The pumpkins were a perfect fit for silly pumpkin face pictures.

Pumpkin Observations

2 pumpkin pie pumpkins, an ice cream scooper, zip lock bag.

I precut and hollowed on pumpkin and put the seeds and pulp in a clear zip lock bag. I pre cut the top of the second pumpkin but did not scoop it out.

I asked the kids to make observations about what the inside of a pumpkin looked like. And then we looked inside. Next, I let the kids look and touch the zip lock bag of seeds and pulp I had filled from the first pumpkin. We did some more observations of the still filled pumpkin and smelled it too!

Pumpkin Volcano

Warm water, 6 TBS baking soda, 1 tsp dish soap, 1/2-1 oz washable paint, 1 c. vinegar per eruption (we were able to do 3 good reactions!)

This craft was a hit! After we observed the pumpkin we were ready to make a pumpkin volcano. This activity was so much fun. I gave the kids a quick lesson on chemical reactions – that a chemical reaction is something you can see. So that when we added vinegar to the baking soda recipe there would be a reaction we could see and observe!

Fill the pumpkin with warm water to about 2/3 full. Add baking soda, dish soap, and paint. Mix well. Pour in one cup vinegar. Observe. Touch! Do it again! We did three reactions. I just added a new cup of vinegar each time.

Volcano recipe from Preschool Inspirations.

This was so much fun we did it again later in the afternoon!

I hope you enjoy these fun pumpkin learning activities! Let me know what you try!