The book Five Little Pumpkins is a classic Halloween or pumpkin themed staple for the fall season. Our Five Little Pumpkins STEM challenge is perfect to pair with it too! Whether you are passed counting to 5, you can still try out this fun STEM activity and see if you can get 5 little pumpkins to sit on the gate or fence. My son still fondly remembers this awesome story. We love pairing our pumpkin books with STEM activities, check it out!

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS STEM CHALLENGE

What I love about this pumpkin STEM challenge is that it uses a few of my favorite things! First, we have freshly picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. Second, we have a great book to share together. Last, we get to use what’s in the recycling bin and the craft container.

WHAT IS STEM: Read all about STEM here!

GET STARTED: Read STEM On A Budget

PRINT OUT: STEM Challenge Worksheets

SUPPLIES:

5 little pumpkins!

Various building materials!

STEM challenge worksheets perfect for kindergarten and early elementary use!

Five Little Pumpkins book! {Amazon Affiliate link}

You can check out our supplies below. You will notice we used paper tubes, clothespins, popsicle sticks, wood craft planks but you could also use pieces of cardboard, and Duplo. What else do you have in your bins from yogurt cups to styrofoam trays, there are tons of great options, and I specifically save them for these activities.

Set out an invitation to design and build for this Five Little Pumpkins STEM challenge. Step back and let your kids test their skills, invent possible scenarios, and figure out what needs to be changed to be more effective.

The biggest challenge we had with our pumpkin STEM activity was the weight of the pumpkins. This was something my son picked up on after a couple failed attempts because the weight of the pumpkins and the lack of a really stable base was not working.

MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT: Pumpkin Pulley Simple Machine

Through these failures, he was able to analyze the situation more critically and come up with an answer. I could have told him that the pumpkins were heavy, but I wanted him to figure it out. STEM provides awesome real life lessons that are so valuable.