Trick or treat basket
Dirt
Empty pack of pumpkin seeds
Pictures or drawings of the life cycle of the pumpkin
Pumpkin lacing card (made out of card stock)
Pie tin
Hay
Measuring tape
Scale
Plastic Pumpkin
Orange Tissue Paper
Orange Paint
Pumpkin Cookie Cutters
1. What is the life cycle of a pumpkin? Where do pumpkins grow?
2. What is the difference between a pumpkin and a jackolantern?
3. How big and how small can pumpkins get? What do you find inside a pumpkin?
4. What foods can be made with pumpkins?
1. Have photos or drawings of the life cycle of a pumpkin. Have students put these in sequence and discuss why and what is happening.
2. Pumpkin lacing cards
3. Jack-o-lantern faces – discuss the face the children place on the construction paper pumpkin. How does their pumpkin feel with a mouth like that?
4. Pumpkins in the patch – get several pieces of green paper. Label the paper one through ten. Then have pumpkin cutouts. Have the children place the correct number of pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.
5. Make pumpkins out of play dough.
1. Did You Ever See A Pumpkin? (tune: Did You Ever See A Lassie)
Did you ever see a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin?
Did you ever see a pumpkin with no face at all?
With no eyes and no nose and no mouth and no teeth?
Did you ever see a pumpkin, with no face at all?
So I made a Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lanter, Jack-O-Lantern
So I made a Jack-O-Lantern with a big funny face.
With big eyes and a big nose and a big mouth and big teeth.
So I made a Jack-O-Lantern with a big funny face.
2. The Pumpkins Are Here (tune: Farmer In The Dell)
The pumpkins are here, the pumpkins are there. The pumpkins, the pumpkins are everywhere.
The pumpkins are up; the pumpkins are down. The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all around.
The pumpkins are in; the pumpkins are out. The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all about.
The pumpkins are low; the pumpkins are high. The pumpkins, the pumpkins all say, “Good-bye.”
3. The Pumpkin Vine
I looked out my window and what did I find?
Gree-een leaves a-growing on my pumpkin vine.
Gree-een leaves a-growing on my pumpkin vine.
I looked out my window and what did I find?
Yeell-llow flowers a-growing on my pumpkin vine
Yeell-llow flowers a-growing on my pumpkin vine.
I looked out my window and what did I find?
Blaa-aack bugs a-crawling on my pumpkin vine
Blaa-aack bugs a-crawling on my pumpkin vine.
I looked out my window and what did I find?
Puu-uumpkins growing on my pumpkin vine
Puu-uumpkins growing on my pumpkin vine.
4. Pumpkin (tune: I’m A Little Teapot)
I’m a little pumpkin
Orange and round
Here is my stem,
There is the ground.
When I get all grown up.
Scream and shout
It is time
To scoop me out!
5. Where is My Pumpkin? (tune: Where is Thumbkin?)
Where is my pumpkin? Where is my pumpkin?
Here it is! Here it is!
Happy Jack-O-Lantern
Happy Jack-O-Lantern
Looks like this. Looks like this. (make happy face)
Where is my pumpkin? Where is my pumpkin?
Sad Jack-O-Lantern
Sad Jack-O-Lantern
Looks like this. Looks like this. (make sad face)
(repeat song using different emotions)
6. The Pumpkin On The Vine (tune: Farmer In The Dell)
The pumpkin on the vine,
The pumpkin on the vine.
I picked the one that weighed a ton,
And that’s the one that’s mine.
I made two funny eyes,
A mouth that’s oversize
The other gook my mother took
For baking pumpkin pies.
The pumpkin on the vine,
The pumpkin on the vine,
I picked the one that weighed a ton,
And that’s the one that’s mine.
1. Pumpkin Song
(to the tune of I’m a little teapot”)
I’m a little pumpkin,
orange and round.
Here is my stem and,
there is the ground.
When I get all cut up,
don’t you shout.
Just open me up and,
scoop me out!
2. I’m Picking out a Pumpkin
(to the tune of I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee)
I’m picking out a pumpkin on a vine.
I want one big and fat and fine.
I’m picking out a pumpkin on a vine.
Oh, I see mine!
I’m pulling on a pumpkin on a vine.
It’s so big, fat, and fine!
I’m pulling on a pumpkin on a vine,
Snap! It’s mine!
3. Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
(hold hands up)
The first one said “oh my its getting late”
put hands on cheeks
The second one said “there’s a chill in the air”
(hug self)
The third one said “but we don’t care”
(shrug shoulders)
The fourth one said ” we are ready for some fun”
(jump in place)
The fifth one said “let’s run and run and run”
(run in place)
So woooo went the wind, and out went the lights
(clap hand one time, loudly)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight
(sit down)
1. Pumpkin Toss – have bean bags and toss them into the halloween bucket.
2. Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin – same as pin the tale on the donkey.
3. Hot pumpkin – played like hot potato
4. Hide the pumpkin cutouts on the playground and have the children find the pumpkin.
5. Pumpkin races
Introduce small group activity by telling children that they are going to measure the circumference, the distance around the middle of a pumpkin. Demonstrate how you can measure the circumference of their waste by using a tape measure. Using long strips of construction paper, allow them to guess and cut the length that they will need to go around the pumpkin. Let them place it around the pumpkin to see if it’s correct. Make sure to have tape in case they cut the strip too short and want to add some length back.
1. Color Walk
Go for a color walk outside. As you walk keep track of the different colors you see and then when you return home draw a picture using those colors.
2. Healthy Food Grooves
Talk with children about how they can keep their bodies healthy and strong by eating lots of nutritious foods and by moving their bodies. Reach for apples: Bend your knees to jump up high in the air and reach for apples in the tree. Go pumpkin picking: Bend your knees and squat down low to pick a pumpkin from the patch.