Preschool Pumpkin Theme
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Kids love pumpkins. They are colorful, interesting, and make us think of fall and Halloween. Check out this Preschool Pumpkin Theme with ideas that aren’t just crafts. It’s great to celebrate holidays and special days in daycare with kids.
I love exploring different fall things but I hate cookie-cutter crafts where all the kid’s work is supposed to look the same. I love process art and letting kids explore and learn from the process of making something they love.
There are so many things you can do with pumpkins with kids that can teach them. You can do art, science, math, sensory learning, fine motor skill building and so much more with these pumpkin ideas for kids that aren’t crafts.
Pumpkin Stamps
One of my favorite pumpkin ideas is pumpkin stamping. Cut shapes from the flesh of a pumpkin and use them for stamping in paint or ink. Click here to see how to stamp with pumpkins.
Pumpkin Activities for preschoolers
My kids LOVE to cook. Cooking teaches kids a ton of skills, so I try to cook with them as much as possible. We love to make pumpkin pie, roast pumpkin seeds, and make pumpkin cookies. So we cook all of our decorating pumpkins and make pumpkin puree. Or for more pumpkin recipes for kids, check this out.
We freeze our puree and use it in tons of recipes. Adding nutrients to food is something I work tirelessly to do to help my kids eat healthy. Pumpkin puree can enhance breads, soups, cookies, casseroles and sauces. It’s full of nutrients and fiber!
Pumpkin rolling races are a great pumpkin idea for kids. They can line up with their pumpkins and see who can get to the end of the race first. Pumpkins are round, but hard to roll because they are bumpy and awkward. It’s so much fun to try to keep them rolling.
Pumpkins can be used to teach kids sensory experiences, math lessons, science knowledge, and even motor skills. Pumpkins are cute, kids love them and they aren’t that expensive to use. You can even have the kids each bring pumpkins for your activities.
I don’t like to carve pumpkins with kids. It’s dangerous to carve pumpkins even myself, but I don’t like the idea of using that kind of cutting instrument in a room full of little people. I also hate wasting the pumpkin when it could be used. I don’t like wasting for the environment, but I also don’t like buying food and letting it go to waste, so I try to use my pumpkins mostly in a way where they can still be consumed.
Kids love painting pumpkins. Give them some washable paints and a big brush or some sponges and let them go at it. They come up with beautiful decorations for your fall décor. Here are more pumpkin decorating ideas without cutting.
You can also let kids roll pumpkins in paint and then roll them on paper to make cool designs. This is so much fun and good for gross motor skills as well.
Another painting idea with pumpkins is to mix red and yellow paint and show the kids how to make the orange color of pumpkins. You can also use playdough to mix the colors as well and kids can shape the dough into pumpkins if they want to.
And don’t forget this printable pumpkin lapbook activity!
Pumpkin art preschool
Give the kids a pumpkin and a piece of paper and let the draw how they think the pumpkin looks. You can also make a book all about the pumpkin that includes other pumpkin exploration.
Kids can measure their pumpkins, weigh them, and also make pages for their pumpkin books with this information. What a fun way to explore something kids already love.
Kids can use collage materials to glue onto pumpkins or paint them. They may be a little young to carve pumpkins, but they can still decorate them. Think about using glow in the dark paint or other ideas that would be fun too.
You can also give kids a printed out pumpkin for pumpkin art. Give them collage materials to glue to the paper or orange tissue paper to tear into strips and glue to the paper. There is so much pumpkin art for preschool, the possibilities are unlimited.
Check out these really fun paper dolls you can dress in Halloween costumes. Also, if you have a loved one with autism, you can print out these teal pumpkin Halloween signs.
Pumpkin lesson plans preschool
There is so much science you can do with pumpkins, count them, make patterns with them, weigh them, measure them, count the warts on them, be creative and you can come up with a ton of pumpkin ideas for kids that teach science. You can get them in different colors and even teach color with them.
Cut a pumpkin open and explore the guts and seeds. This is a great sensory experience. The smell is amazing and the feeling is amazing. They look really gross too. Let the kids get right in there and pull all the guts out and really check them out. They can learn descriptive words like stringy and slimy. The possibilities are endless.
Another pumpkin science idea is sink or float. You can ask the kids if they think a big pumpkin will float. They do because they are hollow in the middle, but they are heavy so they don’t look like it. You can write down the kid’s hypothesis.
Ask them if they think a pumpkin will float better or a paperclip. I bet they’ll be surprised when you put them in a big tub of water and find out the answer.
Pumpkin books for preschool
There are a ton of great pumpkin books for preschool kids. Our favorite pumpkin series is Spookley, but check out all these fun pumpkin preschool books.
Pumpkin songs preschool
We love to sing a ton of pumpkin songs for preschool. Five little pumpkins is our favorite preschool pumpkin song, but we like to add in some others and mix it up too.
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said, oh my it’s getting late,
The second one said, there’s a chill in the air,
The third one said, but we don’t care
The fourth one said, we’ll run run run
The fifth one said, and have some fun!
Whoosh went the wind and out went the light and the 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
More pumpkin songs preschool….
- 10 Orange Pumpkins in a Row
- Pumpkin Pumpkin
- Have you Ever Seen a Pumpkin?
- I’m a Little Pumpkin
- Mr. Pumpkin
There is so much you can do with pumpkins that isn’t a craft, try some of these for your pumpkin theme unit this year. You can even make a jack o lantern charcuterie board for snack!
- Pumpkin activities for preschool
- Easy pumpkin decorating ideas without cutting
- Pumpkin recipes for kids
And if you want to participate in the teal pumpkin project and include more kids in the fun, check this out.
For more special day ideas, check out these home daycare crafts and activities for special holidays can help make your celebrations fun!
