Pumpkins
15 FREE Resources Exploring “Pumpkins”
Exploring Pumpkins
The summer is quickly coming to and end. Kids are back in school and the leaves are starting to change color, to prep for the winter months. Soon it will be time to harvest the pumpkins for the holiday season. Harvesting ends in New England around Columbus Day Weekend.
There are a great many fairs and festivals that celebrate pumpkins. The town of Woodstock, CT celebrated their 159th Woodstock Fair this Labor Day weekend with an amazing showcase of pumpkins! Department 14A is classified as the “Giant Vegetables” department. Giant Vegetables growing is a real hobby and there are enough people interested it has its own category for judging and competing.
Check out this pumpkin, the grower and owner of this giant pumpkin was taken at only 60 days of growing. Gene Lariviere has been growing gigantic pumpkins and entering them in fairs for many years. He has won lots of ribbons and has a true passion for the pumpkin growing challenge. Thank you, Gene for giving permission to post your giant (vegetable) fruit! To learn more about Gene and his giant pumpkins you can visit TEAM-PUMPKIN.ORG
The following FREE resources can help you lesson plan and teach your students about pumpkins. Included are some online books, videos and some downloadable prinatables. Enjoy!
Online Books with Pumpkins
There are lots of books about pumpkins. Here are five wonderful books you can share with your students. Most of these books are worthy to have a printed copy so kids can read over and over, to cut down on the screen time.
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever
“Once there were two mice who fell in love with the same pumpkin….Desmond the field mouse wants to carve the biggest jack-o’-lantern in the neighborhood with his pumpkin. Clayton the house mouse wants to win the Biggest Pumpkin contest with his. But when they discover that their choice pumpkins are actually the same one, Desmond and Clayton decide to work together to grow the biggest pumpkin ever!” –Excerpt Amazon
The Vanishing Pumpkin
“When a 700-year-old woman and an 800-year-old man want to make pumpkin pie on Halloween, they can’t find their pumpkin. “Our pumpkin’s been snitched,” cries the woman. And off they go to find it.” – Excerpt Amazon
Pumpkin Jack
“The first pumpkin Tim ever carved was fierce and funny, and he named it Jack. When Halloween was over and the pumpkin was beginning to rot, Tim set it out in the garden and throughout the weeks he watched it change.” – Excerpt Amazon
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
“Mr. Tiffin and his students explore skip counting and estimation in a fun pumpkin-themed classroom experiment! This book makes a wonderful read-aloud companion to any math or science curriculum, and it’s a fun way to reinforce counting skills at home. “How many seeds are in a pumpkin?” Mr. Tiffin asks his class as they gather around the big, medium, and small pumpkins on his desk. Robert, the biggest kid, guesses that the largest one has a million seeds; Elinor, sounding like she knows what she’s talking about, guesses the medium one has 500 seeds; and Anna, who likes even numbers better than odd ones, guesses that the little one has 22. Charlie, the smallest boy in the class, doesn’t have a guess.” – Excerpt Amazon
The Pumpkin Book
“In this cheerfully-illustrated, simply-presented book, children can learn about the growth cycle and many varieties of pumpkins, and even how to plant their own. Award-winning author Gail Gibbons also relates the special role pumpkins played in the first Thanksgiving, the history behind carving pumpkins into jack’o’lanterns, and how pumpkins are still part of our celebrations today.” – Excerpt Amazon
Pumpkin Videos
The following are three learning videos about pumpkins, and a couple of bonus songs that kids love. Some are for teach the teacher and others are for sharing with your students.
Pumpkin: How Does it Grow?
The United States harvests over 500 million pounds of pumpkin each year. And most of the pumpkin is harvested for decoration. Learn a lot of facts about pumpkins in the video from TRUE FOOD TV.
A Pumpkin’s Life
“A Pumpkin’s Life” is a cool video production of a time-lapse video, from seed to harvest. It is three minutes long and has funky upbeat music. Depending on the age of your children, this will be something they will think is cool. I thought it was very cool!
8 Cool Facts About Pumpkins
Kids will enjoy watching is cute little video from a little girl named Abby. The name of her families YouTube Channel is named “Cooking with Abby.” Younger children like to listen and learn from other children this will be a pretty inspiring video to share with your students.
Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate
Next is the classic children’s rhyme put to music. This is produced by the Kidboomers – Kids Music Channel on YouTube. They recommend this video from toddler to kindergarten. Kids and adults both love this video and song.
Five Little Pumpkins: Pumpkin Song
Finally, this is a video has the intent to help teach children about emotions. They use pumpkins and musical scoring as a way to explain different feelings. This is good for anytime of year. It is on the Super Simple Songs YouTube Channel.
Printable Resources
The last few resources are from some of my peers at Teacher Pay Teacher. Even if you are not a traditional classroom teacher, any caregiver can download free and/or purchase these teachers created resources from the TpT website.
(S) Science
The first free resource is from Mrs. Ricca’s Kindergarten. This is a science mini-unit that investigates pumpkins. The pumpkin investigation includes a pumpkin life cycle, seed estimation and more. There are 39 pages for you to use with your students and they pair wonderfully with the read alouds in this post. Thank you, Mrs. Ricca!
(T) Technology
Technology are videos and it is also items we use everyday. I chose this TpT freebie created by Sarah Paul, because of the “Measuring Pumpkins” worksheet. Your students can use items that are considered technological advances through history. They can use anything to measure the pumpkins including a digital scale or a tape measure. The download includes other valuable pumpkin activities, thank you Sarah, this is pretty cool!
(E) Engineering
Incorporating engineering into a early childhood unit can be a challenge when the topic is pumpkins. This freebie is from Abby Sandlin. It is called “Candy Pumpkin Tower STEM Challenge.” This two page download will help you guide your students using the STEM Engineering Process. Excellent for group work. Thank you, Abby!!
(M) Math
Keeping in line with the pumpkin theme, “Pumpkin Time” was created by Curriculum Castle. This free download can be used easily as a center and includes time puzzles to the hour and a cut and paste worksheet. Thanks you, Curriculum Castle!!!
(H) History & Social Studies
Following directions is a good social skill that students should develop. Developing these skills early on will greatly improve academic success. Check out this free Pumpkin Glyph from Teacher’s Take-Out. Thank you. Teacher’s Take Out!
(A) Arts & Crafts
Next, is a {Pumpkin Craft – Book and Writing Activity” from Teaching with Crayons and Curls. This can be done as a reinforcement with “Spooky the Square Pumpkin” or any pumpkin book. Thank you for the freebie Teaching with Crayons and Curls!
(X) Xtra
The final free resource can be used as a center. It is a take on the traditional card game of “war.” Instead of using a standard deck of cards, print out these cool “Life Cycle Pumpkin” cards. And the numbers the cards are picture or words and use ordinal numbering; sequencing with the pumpkin life cycle. Thank you Life Over C’s and ITeach Too, this is very cool!
If you like these free resources please consider following these teacher creators. They are always developing new and cool things, for you and I, to share with young learners. Please consider following us on social media, we are at STEMHAX.
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. All that means is if you decide to make a purchase, I might earn a small commission at ZERO cost to you. Thank you, see you soon!!
Pumpkin Books Appreciation!
