Halloween is over and the holiday season is on the horizon- which means food, family and of course PUMPKINS! Although pumpkins may traditionally be a Halloween/Jack-o-Lantern type thing, we decorate with these cute fruits all fall long, so of course we had to break out some activities to celebrate their adorable orange roundness too! You should be able to find some left over from Halloween at your local grocery store (or maybe even have some already around your house!) for the activities below! Have fun, and happy learning!
–Pumpkin golf tee hammering: This was such a fun fine motor activity- my preschooler just went to town on it! You basically just get a bunch of golf tees and hammer them into a baking pumpkin! I helped my toddler get them started, but my preschooler was hammering tees away all on his own. I got this idea from Living Montessori Now.
–Pumpkin balancing: This was another fun find motor activity- you set up several toilet paper tubes on the floor and give your little some mini pumpkins to balance on top of them. I got the idea from Happy Toddler Playtime!
–Fizzy pumpkins: We cut the top off of a mini pumpkin and scooped out the seeds and strings, then I filled it with baking soda and gave my littles colored vinegar and pipettes and let them play and explore! I got this idea from Freebie Finding Mom.
–Pumpkin Jello sensory play: draw a pumpkin using sharpie on a Ziploc bag. Make orange Jello (about 1/4 of the recipe), pour it into the baggie while it’s still liquid and put it flat in the fridge to let it set. Then let your little squish and squash to their heart’s content!
–Magic pumpkin Skittle experiment: I placed orange skittles around a paper plate (with a few greens at the top for a stem) then poured hot water into the center of the plate so it just touched the Skittles. As the water dissolved the color off of the Skittles the orange “grew” into the center of the plate until the whole plate was orange with a green stem! Both of my littles thought this was cool to watch! I got this idea from Active Littles.
–Pumpkin sun catchers: My toddler had such a ball with this activity! You cut out a black pumpkin shaped frame from construction paper, stick it to some contact paper (or vinyl transfer paper for all my super crafty mamas out there!) and trim off the excess. Then cut some red, orange and yellow pieces from sheets of tissue paper and have your little stick them to the contact paper to make a sun catcher! They look really pretty hanging on a window in the sun!
–Mini pumpkin decorating: I gave my littles each a pumpkin and some colorful Sharpie markers and let them go to town! (highly supervised because Sharpies!). Paint would be another fun option!
–Spookley water color painting: If you haven’t read “Spookley the Square Pumpkin” with your kiddos, I highly recommend it- it’s cute, exciting, and teaches a great message about not judging others by how they look! They even have a Thanksgiving story out now called “Spookley the Square Pumpkin: A Family to be Thankful For”! Since my littles enjoy it so much, we did a Spookley water color painting page together this week- I printed it for free here!
–Pumpkin stamping process art: I taped down a large piece of our easel roll paper to our schoolroom table, gave my littles some red, orange and yellow paint and a few mini pumpkins, then let them stamp and swirl away to their heart’s content!
–Supply/shopping list:
- contact paper or vinyl transfer paper
- green, orange, yellow and red tissue paper
- mini pumpkins (5-6)
- colorful sharpies or paint
- skittles
- large pumpkin
- baking pupmkin
- golf tees
- hammer (toy or a small real one depending on your child’s age)
- toilet paper tubes (5)
- roll of easel paper
littlelovesandlearning.com 
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