Pumpkins Everywhere

I was hoping to get this post in under the October wire, but no such luck. Anyway, I wanted to share some of my favorite pumpkin activities I did in my classroom for the past few weeks. As any preschool teacher knows pumpkins are HUGE in the early childhood classroom. What is it about those big, orange squash that students just love?! I know my students love to point out a pumpkin where ever we are, so these activities were a big hit.

1. Pumpkin Insides Book: I got this idea from my friend Carissa who did this with her students during our student teaching semester. Check out her blog here! We glued pumpkin seeds and orange yarn as pulp and the front cover reads "What's inside a pumpkin?" I also had the students trace their names on the back because I aim to constantly expose them to their names/writing. 

2.  Mini Sticker Pumpkins: This was a last minute addition to our art center last week. I had bought mini pumpkins for our dramatic play center and I didn't want them to go to waste towards the end of the week, so I allowed the students to place Target Dollar Spot foam stickers all over them. Removing the paper on the stickers was great fine motor practice.

3. Pumpkin Measuring: This lesson exposed my students to the terms small, medium, and big as well as estimation and nonstandard forms of measurement. I had pre-cut pieces of yarn and the students had to determine (with teacher prompting/help) which string would go around each pumpkin. For example, would the tiny string go around our big pumpkin?

4. Pumpkin Seed Counting: The students worked on their one-to-one correspondence skills by doing pumpkin seed counting lesson. I modeled the pumpkin counter for them (a laminated pumpkin with a number and corresponding amount of seeds drawn on it) and how to count out the seeds/pick them up with their pincers. Pumpkin counters were made more accessible to students by drawing on the corresponding number of seeds they should put on each pumpkin. (pumpkin mats found at prekinders.com)

5 & 6. Pumpkin Play Dough: Homemade, no cook pumpkin play dough made with Jell-o brand pumpkin pudding mix added to a traditional play dough recipe.  

My pumpkin play dough recipe. I use this as a visual for the students while making the play dough.