It’s time for the pumpkins!! Learning about pumpkins is always a favorite in kindergarten! And we love using our Pumpkin Research Project to get a hands-on learning adventure with these kindergarten pumpkin activities! This pumpkins research project gives students experience with research, writing, higher-order thinking, vocabulary, and pumpkin centers! And it’s fun! And that’s what matters most! Making learning fun!
This research project is available in our TKS Store.
As always, we kick off our pumpkin research project or pumpkin unit with a schema map! We share our schema (what we know) about pumpkins. As we learn about pumpkins, we add our new knowledge, and finally, we address any misconceptions.
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Research
Our research projects center on read-alouds and videos for the research, and class charts for recording our learning. The students use the class charts to write in their research journals. THEY LOVE THEIR RESEARCH JOURNALS! I love that our research projects give them a consistent structure!
The true/false sort is one of the last activities we do in our research projects and is a great way to bring higher-order thinking into your classroom. This is also an opportunity to have some great academic conversations about what makes a statement true or false!
We study pumpkins’ life cycles and label their parts. Labeling activities provide great explicit vocabulary instruction, which is a must for our kids.
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Measurement
We measure ourselves using pumpkins! We learn about estimating and how we were making a SMART guess and then we estimate how many pumpkins tall we might be. Each student gets measured using the included pumpkins. We record our guesses and actual measurements on our paper. I take a picture of each kid, and we make it into a class book.
Our Measure It Up! resource includes 12 measurement activities perfect for exploring and practicing measurement and estimation. Your students will love measuring each other with seasonal/thematic objects. They’ll be out of their seats, engaged in mathematical discussions, and exploring how to estimate and measure objects. This resource is available in our TKS Store by clicking the image below.
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Sink Or Float
We also do sink or float with pumpkins! This science experiment is super fun because the kids are always amazed at the results! We predict if a pumpkin will sink or float, and then we do our experiment, and we record our results in our pumpkin research journal! This activity is included in the Pumpkin Research Project.
Our favorite thing to do with pumpkins is, of course, to cut them open and clean out the guts! This is actually our Halloween day activity! Instead of a party, we do pumpkins! I cut the pumpkins open, and the kids clean them out! Once cleaned out, we fill them with potting soil and put a pansy inside the pumpkin! The pumpkins go home with the kids that day!
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Art Projects
Directed drawings of pumpkins!
We also make torn paper pumpkins. Torn paper projects are great for fine motor skills, so we incorporate them as much as possible!
Another version of the torn paper pumpkin is to use small paper plates! We then used these to decorate our classroom door!
The kids also get to make their own jack-o-lanterns! Some of these poor things look like they’ve seen a few things in their lifetime!
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Pumpkin Snacks
We like to read The Perfect Pumpkin Pie and make mini pumpkin pies! We have started making pumpkin pies in a cup with graham crackers, pumpkin pie filling, whipped cream, and cinnamon!
Pumpkin Sensory Bins
This is such a fun and easy activity! All you need is orange rice, glittery balls, and pumpkins from Dollar Tree! In the sensory bin seen below, we’re using our Pumpkin Emojis resource, which is part of our Emoji Letters & Sounds Bundle.
The other sensory bin is black beans, pumpkins from Dollar Tree, and number pumpkins from our Pumpkin Research Project!
Emoji Letters & Sounds Bundle is a year-long literacy center bundle includes low-prep and engaging materials for phonics and phonemic awareness skills. Students will love the hands-on learning and games, and won’t even realize how much they’re learning! You get 15 different themed activities that include recording sheets. This resource is available in our TKS Store.
Pumpkin Phonics Project
We also do our Pumpkin Phonics Project in October because it makes a cute bulletin board or hallway display that is still aligned to standards!
Kindergarten Pumpkin Activities: Pumpkins Freebies!
Below are 2 free downloads for you. Simply click the images below to download the free files.
What’s Included In Our Pumpkins Research Project?
You’ve seen a lot in this blog and might be asking, “What all is included in the Pumpkin Research Project that I can purchase?” Here’s the answer:
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Graphic organizers
- Recording sheets
- Measurement activities
- Five Senses activities
- Writing and drawing activities
- Read aloud book suggestions
- Math & literacy centers
Here Are The activities:
- Schema map
- KWL chart
- Can/have/are chart
- Look/need/make chart
- True/false sort
- Pumpkin life cycle
- Labeling
- Pumpkin brace chart
- Pumpkin writing
- Pumpkin five senses
- Pumpkin sink or float
- How many pumpkins tall are we measurement activity
- Vocabulary
See The Full Preview of Every Activity – Click Here
Ready To Get Started?
Check out these other pumpkin resources!
