Pumpkin Activity Plans

Download the pumpkin week planning guide for easy to prep and play learning ideas to use at home or in your preschool classroom!

DAY 1

Dry Erase Pumpkin: Use a dry erase marker to write letters in the word pumpkin on the pumpkin! Use the letters in the word pumpkin to copy on to the pumpkin. Play this game backwards too! Write letters all over the pumpkin and name a letter for your preschooler to erase or circle!

Play Dough Pumpkins: Create play dough pumpkins for your very own pumpkin patch! Pinch a small piece of play dough and roll it on the table or in between your palms to make a ball shape. Make different sized pumpkins for your pumpkin patch. Count them, put them in size order, etc. to add different math skills into this fine motor activity!

DAY 2

Paper Plate Pumpkin: Cut up small pieces of orange paper. Glue one orange piece on the paper plate at a time. Fill the paper plate with orange paper. Add a paper rectangle brown stem and a paper green leaf to the pumpkin. Hang it up to display it!

Stuff the Pumpkin: Grab a bunch of cotton balls, a small paper lunch bag (as a pretend pumpkin, cut shorter if desired), and a die. Roll the die, identify the number, and add that many cotton balls to stuff the pumpkin. Count each cotton ball as it is added to the pretend pumpkin. Keep rolling, counting, and adding cotton balls to the pumpkin until it’s full! Dump it out and play again.

DAY 3

Illustrate the Story: While listening to a book being read, draw a picture about the story. Choose a pumpkin or fall themed book. Don’t peek at the pictures, instead draw what is being read. Retell the story while sharing your picture. This is also an great activity to introduce or talk about the setting, characters, and problem in the story!

Drip Drop Orange: Add drops of red and yellow food coloring to water in 2 different clear cups. Fill the clear cups 1/2 way with water. Using medicine syringes or droppers to drip the red and yellow water into a third clear cup. Watch for the colors to mix to make orange!

DAY 4

Pumpkin Alphabet: Draw a huge pumpkin shape on a piece of poster board or chart paper. Write letters all around the pumpkin. Hang it up on the wall with painters tape. Add those same letters to post-its. Write one letter to each post-it. Stick the post-its around the room. Find each letter and stick the post-it on the matching letter on the pumpkin.

Color Sorting Pumpkins: Print these pumpkins on colored paper or color them the correct color. Collect items and small toys and add them to a tray or bin. Pull out an object, identify the color of the object, and add it to the matching colored pumpkin. Keep sorting the objects by color until the tray is empty!

DAY 5

Roll & Cover Pumpkins: Print this activity page or create your own. If creating your own, draw 6+ pumpkins on a paper. Add the one number 1-6 to the middle of each pumpkin. Add dice to the activity. Roll one die, count the dots, and cover the pumpkins with the same number on the page. Use a button, bead, or pom pom to cover the pumpkin. Keep rolling and covering until all pumpkins are covered.

Pumpkin Jump: Place different sized pumpkins around the room. Move from pumpkin to pumpkin, jumping over each pumpkin. Practice leaping, hopping, taking big steps, to work on gross motor movements in a fun way!

EXTRAS

Roll Down the Line: Draw a long line with chalk down the side walk or around the driveway or parking lot. Consider making the line squiggly instead of just straight. Using a small pumpkin, roll and steer your pumpkin down the line!

Pumpkin Seed Count: Using store bought pumpkin seeds, pour them all into a small bowl. Grab a handful of seeds and count them to find the total. Grab another handful and guess if there are more or less seeds in your hand. Count them to find out. Practice early addition and subtraction

Download the pumpkin theme editable planning sheet. Add learning ideas from the list below in this column or from the pumpkin week activities!

9 Simple Pumpkin Prep & Play Activities