Pumpkin Activities
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved pumpkins. I vividly remember learning how to draw pumpkins as a child and then drawing them over and over again, especially during the fall.
My fascination with pumpkins didn’t end when I grew up. I remember decorating with them in college, then in my own home, and eventually finding ways to incorporate them into all sorts of classroom activities.
When I taught preschool, it was easy! Coloring pumpkins, counting pumpkins, stamping pumpkins—the possibilities were endless. When I started teaching slightly older students, pumpkins were still part of my fall lessons, but the activities became a little more skill-focused.
From reading and writing to math and phonics, I’ve found so many ways to use pumpkins in the classroom. Here are 10 pumpkin activities you can use with your students this fall!
Pumpkin Writing Activities
Pumpkins aren’t just for carving! They’re also a great starting point for all kinds of writing activities, from sharing opinions to practicing sentence-writing skills.
Our Favorite Ways to Use a Pumpkin
I recently shared an apple activity where students brainstormed, voted, and wrote about their favorite ways to eat apples. That activity inspired me to create something similar with pumpkins! Since pumpkins have so many uses beyond food, I decided to focus on how we use pumpkins instead.
We came up with lots of interesting ideas, including counting pumpkin seeds, winning prizes for pumpkins, picking and carving pumpkins, and, of course, all the different ways we can eat them!
In this activity, students brainstorm different ways to use a pumpkin, vote for their favorite, graph the results, and write about their choice.
💚Grab Our Favorite Ways to Use a Pumpkin from TPT
How to Carve a Pumpkin Procedural Writing
Of course, one of the most popular ways students voted to use a pumpkin was carving it for Halloween, so we needed an activity about carving pumpkins!
In this procedural writing activity, students use time-order words such as first, next, after that, and finally to describe the steps for carving a pumpkin.
This activity is super easy to differentiate because it includes several levels of planning pages, writing templates, and word wall words to help students with the vocabulary they might want to use in their writing.
💚 Grab How to Carve a Pumpkin Procedural Writing Activities
Big Pumpkin Writing Activity
You might think this next activity is more about Halloween than pumpkins because of the characters in the story, but the story itself is really about a very big pumpkin stuck in the ground!
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman is my favorite pumpkin story ever, and kids always love it for its predictability and funny ending. In the story, all sorts of Halloween creatures try to pull an enormous pumpkin out of the ground, but none can do it alone. Then a little bat figures out that if they all work together, they can finally pull the big pumpkin out of the ground!
After reading, I have students imagine who they would choose to help them pull a giant pumpkin out of the ground and explain why they picked that person. The activity is easy to differentiate with four different writing templates to choose from.
💚 Grab Big Pumpkin Writing Activity on TPT
Want to take the writing a little further?
I also have a set of Big Pumpkin Sentence-Level Writing Skills Activities that use the story to practice sentence types, sentence expansion, combining sentences, and more.
Stumpkin My Perfect Pumpkin Writing Activity
This book might break your heart when you first read it! Poor Stumpkin is the last pumpkin left on the shelf on Halloween. Nobody wants to take him home because he doesn’t have a stem, just a stump. Kids come and go, but Stumpkin just sits there, waiting for someone to choose him.
Thankfully, at the end of Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins, he finds a home with the shopkeeper, and suddenly it becomes a lovely story about belonging after all.
After reading the story, we look at all kinds of pumpkins, both in real life and on the included poster. Students then use the planning page to design their perfect pumpkin before bringing their ideas to life through writing! This is also a great activity to do after a visit to the pumpkin patch.
💚 Grab Stumpkin My Perfect Pumpkin Writing Activity on TPT
Want to take the writing a little further?
II also have a set of Stumpkin Sentence-Level Writing Skills Activities. These activities use the story to practice sentence types, sentences and fragments, sentence expansion, combining sentences, and more.
Pumpkin-Themed Sentence Level Writing Skills Practice
This resource has a whole lot of pumpkins! It includes an anchor chart, a true-or-false activity, a related book reading list, and eight activities to help students practice their sentence-level writing skills.
Students work on skills such as identifying sentences and fragments, recognizing different types of sentences, expanding sentences, and more!
It’s an easy way to dive into a pumpkin theme while practicing those important sentence-writing skills.
💚Grab Pumpkin-themed Sentence-Level Writing Skills from TPT
Pumpkin Math Activities
Of course, we can’t forget about math! Here are a couple of ways to bring pumpkins into your math lessons.
Pumpkin Numbers & Subitizing Game Cards
I have to admit, I saw this adorable pumpkin clip art on TpT, and it was just calling me to create something with it! And that’s how my Pumpkin Numbers & Subitizing Game Cards were born!
These cards are a great way for young students to practice number sense, whether they’re learning at home or in the classroom. The set includes pumpkin number cards from 0–10 and two sets of pumpkin seed cards for subitizing practice. Students can count, match numbers to quantities, and play games such as Old Maid while practicing their number skills.
💚 Grab Pumpkin Numbers & Subitizing Game Cards on TPT
Pumpkin Number Bond Activities
Pumpkins and number bonds? Why not, right?
These pumpkin-themed number bond activities give students lots of practice putting numbers together and taking them apart. The set includes pumpkin number bond puzzles, practice pages, and an activity mat with number cards.
Not only are these activities great for practicing number skills, but they also keep kids busy for quite a while! Perfect for those end-of-the-day moments when you just don’t have anything left in you!
💚 Grab Pumpkin Number Bond Activities on TPT
Pumpkin Phonics Activities
And finally, a little pumpkin-themed phonics practice! These activities give students a chance to work on glued sounds, sight words, and short vowels while keeping with our fall theme.
Pumpkin Glued Sounds -AM and -AN Activities
A few years ago, my students were struggling with the glued sounds -am and -an during the fall, so I decided to make a game to give them some extra practice while keeping with the season.
The game is mostly fall-themed, with a little hint of Halloween thrown in, too! The resource includes games for matching pictures to glued sounds, glued sound dice games, and practice pages to help students work on reading and writing words with -am and -an.
💚 Grab Glued Sounds -an and -am Games on TPT
Pumpkin Sight Words Games
Can you ever really have enough games to practice sight words? I think not!
These are just two of the many sight word games I’ve created over the years, and both keep with our pumpkin theme! They’re a fun way to give students some extra sight word practice without having to pull out another worksheet or those darn flashcards!
💚 Grab Pumpkin Bump Sight Word Game on TpT
💚 Grab Pumpkin Sight Word Games — First 100 Sight Words on TpT
FREE Short Vowel Pumpkin Game
And finally, a little something FREE!
These pumpkin puzzles are a simple way for students to practice identifying short vowel sounds. Each pumpkin has a picture on one half and a vowel on the other. Students match the pieces to put the pumpkins back together!
There are 15 puzzles covering all five short vowels. Just print, cut, and let the matching begin!
💚 Grab the FREE Short Vowel Pumpkin Game
Wrapping it Up
Well, there you have it! Ten ways to bring a little pumpkin fun into your classroom this fall. Whether you’re working on writing, math, phonics, or sight words, there’s always room for a few more pumpkins!
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