Have fun this Fall with simple preschool pumpkin activities to set up at home or in the classroom. Makes for a great science activity after a visit to a pumpkin patch too! Science with pumpkins is always a hit around here, we love trying new pumpkin projects as soon as we see pumpkins hit the farm stands!

FUN ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL PUMPKIN THEME

PUMPKIN THEME

This week’s pumpkin theme is all about harvesting and we chose pumpkins!  Our pumpkin activities touch a bit on many early learning areas including science, literacy, sensory, and practical life {baking}! All through out the week we tried different pumpkin activities with a simple pumpkin purchased from the grocery store.

A new element we have added to our learning time is videos! It’s a great way to show some of the learning ideas from a different perspective. I have included links for those too!

SUPPLIES YOU WILL NEED

The following pumpkin activities require a few simple items and a real pumpkin or two, of course!

• Small baking pumpkin from grocery store about 3-4lb
• Kitchen scale for weighing pumpkin
• Flexible, soft measuring tape
• Container for water
• Recipe Ingredients (Baking Component)
• Cornstarch (Sensory Component)
• Books! (see our list below or click here)

PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS

We worked on a simple activity each day and either read books or watched some great videos to go along with our learning. Check out what we did! One small pumpkin yielded some great opportunities for play and learning!

1. DO PUMPKINS SINK OR FLOAT?

We tested sink or float and talked about why or why not it might sink or float. He thought it was to heavy to float and was surprised to find it floated. Then we talked about what a pumpkin looks like inside and why that might cause it to float instead.

We also weighed our pumpkin and talked about pounds and ounces. Lastly, we measured the circumference of the pumpkin and talked about the distance around is how we measure a pumpkin.

Check out the video below that we watched!

Pumpkin Sink Or Float With A classroom of Kids Video

2. PARTS OF A PUMPKIN

We opened up our pumpkin and took a look at the different parts of it! We separated the seeds, the pulp (brains, guts), the stem, the flesh and the skin!

We also enjoyed the following videos while we explored our pumpkin since I could narrate the pictures and ask questions. Here’s a couple different ones to try!

Life Cycle Of A Pumpkin  (This one is good for a parent or teacher to narrate.)

The Life Cycle Of  A Pumpkin (This one is also for narration but shows some different ideas and asks some questions to get kids involved)

3.  IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE: BAKING PUMPKIN BREAD

He asked if we could eat the pumpkin as is, so I told him that some fruits like a pumpkin should be cooked first to soften them up and make them a bit tastier. So that’s what we did!

After I baked the pumpkin and let it cool, we compared it to the other half that was unbaked. we scooped it out and had a little taste.

We then baked a very simple, delicious, one bowl recipe pumpkin bread (grain free). Click here for our easy pumpkin bread recipe with coconut flour or on the photo below.

4. PUMPKIN OOBLECK

He has been interested in oobleck ever since we made our applesauce oobleck, so I decided to use the other half of the pumpkin and make a pumpkin guts oobleck for sensory play.  Also to reinforce our science learning of what oobleck is and does!

Pumpkin Oobleck Recipe

Or try our popular… 

PUMPKIN SLIME RECIPE

5. PUMPKIN VOLCANO

When I  bought our baking pumpkin at the grocery store, all the way home he talked about making a volcano because he remembered the volcano we made in our dinosaur sensory bin.  So I decided to turn our pumpkin into a pumpkin-cano with an easy baking soda and vinegar chemical reaction.  

Click here for our Pumpkin Volcano Experiment.

Enjoy A Week of Fun Preschool Pumpkin Activities! 

Click on the photo below or on the link for more fun fall activities for preschoolers.