If you’ve been looking for great pumpkin activities for kindergarten that make learning fun and meaningful and are easy to prep, you’re in the right place! Planning a Pumpkin Day is the perfect way to celebrate fall with your students while sneaking in valuable lessons across all of the most important subject areas.
Pumpkin Day is a day full of all things pumpkin, but it’s more than that— it’s a hands-on celebration where activity is rich in learning opportunities. Instead of simply reading about pumpkins or coloring a few pumpkin-themed pages this fall, Pumpkin Day allows your students to explore, move, taste, read, write, and problem solve while they learn!
Research from 2010 shows that young children are most engaged and learn best when they experience interactive, playful, real-world experiences. By planning a Pumpkin Day, you will give your students an opportunity to learn about pumpkins while they engage in math, literacy, science, and movement in ways that STICK.
Now, let’s look at the 8 best pumpkin activities for kindergarten (and first and second grade too!) to help you plan the most magical Pumpkin Day ever:
Start your day with an activity that blends literacy with lots of fun!
The First Day of Fall Pocket Chart Hide & Seek Activity lets you easily practice sight words or vocabulary words as you play hide & seek with pumpkins.
This game is perfect for a whole class game, small group lessons, centers, circle time, and Morning Meeting.
Next, upgrade your math lesson with this festive Pumpkin Number Bonds Math Activity!
The hands-on mat helps your students better understand the concept of part-part-whole. This activity is also easy to differentiate and works with any type of math curriculum!
Each worksheet has related addition facts for practice applying number bond knowledge to solve problems.
No Pumpkin Day is complete without kid-friendly stories! A strong book life sets the tone for lots of learning and sparks meaningful conversations about new vocabulary and exciting topics.
Check out these great pumpkin books for kids:
Together, these read-alouds give you a balance of fiction and nonfiction that support vital literacy skills, build background knowledge, and make Pumpkin Day feel extra special!
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Balance all of the sitting with a high-energy movement activity! Head outside or to the gym for pumpkin relay races.
Use real or plastic pumpkins (small ones are best!) and encourage students to roll pumpkins across the floor or carry them in pairs. Switch partners to allow more peer connections to happen and stretch the fun out even longer.
This activity builds teamwork and coordination while giving your students the chance to move and be silly with their classmates!
Next, encourage creativity and build vocabulary with this Pumpkin Word Bank and Writing Resource.
Place the seasonal word cards (with kid-friendly pictures for each word!) in your writing center, and challenge your students to use them to:
Not only will your students strengthen their writing and vocabulary skills, but they will also build confidence as they see their ideas come to life!
Try this Apples Word Bank & Writing Pages resource for FREE!
Don’t forget STEM! Get scientific with a hands-on investigation of a real pumpkin. Gather everyone together and let your students explore:
Write students’ predictions on a large anchor chart or your smart board. Revisit the pumpkin life cycle from your read-aloud. Take it one step further and give your students their own clipboards to record the results.
Your students will feel like actual scientists as they observe, record, and discuss their discoveries!
Next up— taste test! Offer your students a small sample of different pumpkin-flavored items.
Consider:
Have your students vote on their favorites, and graph the results for a meaningful math connection to this tasty part of the day.
Finally, wrap up the day with a fun art activity that ties right back into the important vocabulary your students learned about a pumpkin’s life cycle.
Use strips of orange construction paper and glue sticks to create 3-D pumpkins on plain white paper. On each strip of paper, write a word associated with a different stage of the pumpkin’s growth.
Encourage students to work together in pairs or small groups to sequence the words in the correct order of the pumpkin’s life cycle. Then, they glue them onto the paper.
*Easily differentiate this activity by having students copy the vocabulary words independently from a provided word bank.
When everyone is finished creating their pumpkins, display them on a bulletin board in your classroom or hallway for a festive fall look!
Pumpkin Day isn’t only about fun— it’s a meaningful way to teach across subject areas while keeping your students engaged! With these pumpkin activities for kindergarten, you can create a celebration that blends literacy, math, science, movement, and art into one extra special day. Your students will go home with new skills, happy memories, and a deeper love for all things pumpkin!
So, grab your pumpkins and supplies and get ready for the best Pumpkin Day ever!
Check out these other low-prep, interactive fall activities to make learning more fun in your classroom this fall!
Fall Craft & Writing Prompt: Students write about what they enjoy most about autumn. Make it a craft or use the easy print-and-go option!
Scarecrow Nouns Lesson & Directed Drawing: Boost your students’ grammar skills using these interactive lesson slides as they “Teach” Scarecrow all about nouns. Then, students enjoy a fun scarecrow-directed drawing activity for maximum fun!
I’m a teacher who believes in creating a classroom kids love and activities that keep them engaged all day!
