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

FUN PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

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

• 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 YOUNG KIDS!

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!

Pumpkin activities For Preschool: Science And Math

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 youtube videos below that we watched!

YOUTUBE VIDEO CHOICE

Pumpkin Sink Or Float With A classroom of Kids Video

PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES: PARTS AND LIFE CYCLE

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 youtube videos while we explored since I could narrate the pictures and ask questions while we looked at our pumpkin! Here’s a couple different ones to try!

Life Cycle Of A Pumpkin  (This one is goof 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)

 

PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES: BAKING AND IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE

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 recipe or on photo.

PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES: OOBLECK 

He has been interested in Oobleck ever since we made an apple sauce oobleck (click here), so I decided to use the other half of the pumpkin and make a pumpkin guts oobleck for sensory play and to reinforce our science learning of what Oobleck is and does! Click here for pumpkin guts oobleck science sensory play!

Or try Pumpkin Slime!

 Enjoy Our Week of Playful  Pumpkin Activities! 

Try pairing a fun fall pumpkin book with a pumpkin STEM Activity too! Click on the photos below.

 
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