We’re back to our seasonal units! This week, we will be doing a variety of different pumpkin activities for homeschool preschool!
To be honest, our family is not huge on Halloween. We did dress up our boys and took them trick-or-treating the past couple years, and went to several events to celebrate. But with the pandemic still in full-force, this year we decided to just to make little Halloween goodie bags and call it a day. Anyone else keeping things minimal for Halloween this year?
Anyways, although Halloween isn’t huge for us, I do love me some pumpkins! Everything from pumpkin spice lattes to pumpkin decorations. Something about pumpkins just screams autumn, and I’m so excited for the pumpkin activities for preschool that we have planned for this week!
So, if you weren’t sick of pumpkins yet, you just might be after this week 😉
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Pumpkin Activities for Preschool
Day 1: No Carving Pumpkin Decorating
I recently saw two different ways to decorate pumpkins, and they both don’t involve any sharp tools! So it’s very little kid-friendly. It’s really one of the most perfect ways to decorate a pumpkin with toddlers and preschoolers.
Below are photos of how they turned out! Make sure to read this post here to find out how to re-create these gorgeous pumpkins below!
Day 2: Pumpkin Carving Jack O Lanterns
Today we will be a doing good ole’ traditional pumpkin carving. I definitely suggest a parent do any of the cutting and carving of the pumpkin, but I plan on getting my boys to scoop out the seeds.
SAVE THE SEEDS! We will be using the seeds for some activities on Day 3!
Day 3: Pumpkin Seed Activities
We will be using the seeds we saved from the Day 2. Wash the seeds and either lay them out to dry, or you could roast them.
Transferring Pumpkin Seeds
Materials Needed:
- Pumpkin seeds
- Dice
- Two bowls/plates
- Tweezers or kids chopsticks
Have one bowl of pumpkin seeds and an empty bowl. Roll and dice, and transfer the number of pumpkins seeds to the empty bowl using tweezers or kids chopsticks. This is a great fine motor activity!
Pumpkin Seed Name Tracing
On a large sheet of kraft paper, write your child’s name (either parent or child can write the name). Use the pumpkin seeds to “trace” the name!
Day 4: Colorful Geometric Shapes on Pumpkins
Stick strips of painter’s tape and on your pumpkin of choice. Criss-cross and overlap the strips of tape to create geometric shapes. Color in negative space using paint or sticks. Peel off the painter’s tape before the paint is fully dried, and you’re done!
Day 5:
Pumpkin Vine Tracing “Pre-Writing” Activity
This 2-page pre-writing activity is included in the lesson plan download!
Paper Strips Pumpkin Art
I saw this activity on Color the Moon and thought it was super cute and very doable for preschoolers.
First, cut out a pumpkin shape on sheet of paper (so it’s negative space). Next, on another sheet of paper, glue down strips of colorful paper where the pumpkin shape will be. I think we will use some glittery washi tape that we used for a leaves activity a couple weeks ago.
Then glue the first page (with the pumpkin cut-out) onto the second paper. Lastly, add a little stem and vine to complete your pumpkin! You can use whatever material you want. I plan on using brown construction paper for the stem and a green pipe cleaner to create a twirly vine!
Books About Pumpkins
I have a whole post dedicated to Books About Pumpkins and other “gentle” Halloween books for littles. So make sure to check out that post!
But here are some books we will be reading this week:
Letter of the Week: Letter F
This worksheet is great to do with dot markers or you could also glue pom poms to each dot. It’s included in the lesson plan download!
Weekly Bible Verse: John 3:16
We did briefly touch on this Bible verse before we started homeschool preschool with my 3 year old. But I thought we should officially memorize this verse again because it’s one I want my son to remember!
Letter F Song
I watched a few letter E songs on Youtube with my boys, and by the end of the videos, both of them were saying the sound of letter E. Songs really are a great way to teach preschoolers!
Pumpkin Unit Lesson Plan
Fill out the form below to get this week’s lesson plan and printables sent directly to your email!
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I post our daily activities on Instagram @discoveringmommyhood. If you do any of these activities, I would love for you to tag me!
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So many great gems here for the littles. Thank you.
I love this idea! It’s a cute and fun way to do some art projects and focus on the seasons. Thank you for sharing these inspiring tips!
What a cute Halloween activity! Such pretty colours too.
Decorating a pumpkin with fall leaves is a great idea! I wish we had some fall leaves here in Hawaii.
These are some great ideas. My son goes to preschool just two days a week so these are some great filler activities.
Thanks for reading, Elizabeth! I hope you can try some of these activities with your son!
What a very creative idea! I am going to have my kids try this!
These ideas are so cute and creative! I love doing seasonal activities and projects with my littles. Thanks for sharing!
These are some of the great and cute ideas to decorate pumpkins. Thanks for sharing
These are great activities. I’m definitely going to do some with my daughter. She’s only 2 but I like to do activities with her already.
That’s great, Diana!
My 21 month old also joins in on some of the activities as well and he enjoys it 🙂
Thx