Pumpkin Day

How many of you are having a Pumpkin Day this year? It's a ton of fun, and a great way to celebrate and participate in fun activities related to the occasion. Here are a few activities my class did:

Have a few pumpkins donated to your classroom. It's a great opportunity to talk about the parts of a pumpkin, how pumpkins grow, what pumpkins are used for, and how pumpkins feel. It' s also a perfect opportunity to discuss adjectives. Challenge students to use adjectives they came up with to write about their pumpkin!

Let students get their hands dirty! Depending on how many pumpkins/students your class has, you may opt to have one pumpkin with one who group or several pumpkins with small groups. We passed around the top of the pumpkin to let students touch and smell.

Let students sort and count seeds! Give them a handful of seeds and ask them to sort and count their seeds by 2's, 5's, and/or 10's. You might decide to have them add up everyone's seeds to find the total amount. If your class has multiple pumpkins, it would be a great activity to compare the insides of different pumpkins and how many seeds each contain. They should find some pumpkins have many, many seeds, while others have not so many.

We also had a Pumpkin Day book where students measured circumference and weight, listed adjectives, compared pumpkins and oranges, conducted a sink/float activity, and wrote about their pumpkin/day. In addition, we read books and poems about pumpkins and even sang a song about pumpkins!

If you would like a copy of the Pumpkin Day Book and many other Pumpkin Day activities/ideas, along with center, game, and craft ideas, check out my Pumpkin Day packet here.

How will you be celebrating Halloween or Pumpkin Day in your classroom or at home?