Pumpkins, pumpkins EVERYWHERE in preschool!

By Laura Eldredge

PUMPKINS ABOUND here in New England in the Fall!  Pumpkins are in everything ... from muffins to pies, coffee to donuts ... we sure do love our pumpkins!  And it's so easy to bring this orange goodness into our homes and preschool classrooms for young children to explore. 

Whether you are using real pumpkins, or making pumpkin inspired crafts or games ... it's all about the PUMPKIN!

Exploring Real Pumpkins

Opening up a real pumpkin and letting young children touch, smell and see what is inside is such a great learning opportunity.  

Before opening up the pumpkin, engage the kids in cognitive thinking about the pumpkin (how much does it weigh, how tall/wide is it, does it sink or float, etc).  You can have some fun by having children make some predictions about the answers before figuring it out.  You can use the fun worksheet to help track the information about your pumpkin.

After scooping out the seeds and drying them, add them to a batch of pumpkin play dough!

Pumpkin Crafts and Games

Break out the orange paint (along with some of those pumpkin seeds you scooped out) to make paper plate pumpkins.

Use orange construction paper, tissue paper, felt or fabric to make pumpkin faces from recycled bottles.

Use some more seeds for a fun pumpkin seed counting game.

Use different colors of play dough to make goofy pumpkin play dough faces.

PreK + K sharing PUMPKIN roundup!

Need more "pumpkin" inpiration?  We've had several posts on the preK + K sharing blog already! Here's a round up!

• Pumpkin Sun Catchers
• Pumpkin Painting
• Pumpkin English Muffins (and other Fall-inspired ideas)

Plus, visit our Pumpkin Pinterest board for a whole host of 80+ preschool pumpkin ideas!

Laura Eldredge co-founded the website The SEEDS Network, as a way to provide early childhood professionals with ideas and resources that support them in their quest to provide quality care and education to our youngest learners. She blogs at www.theseedsblog.com.