10 Days of Pumpkin Preschool Activities!

Our homeschooling journey started on an October morning over a decade ago, when I decided not to go back to my job as a preschool teacher with my infant and three-year-old. I had already made lesson plans for the month, so I used them with my older daughter every morning while the baby was sleeping. I went on to do these pumpkin preschool activities every year until my youngest outgrew them.

(Okay, I’m not going to lie — the pumpkin goo in a bag is still a hit, even with big kids.)

If you are doing tot school or preschool at home, you’ll love these 10 days of pumpkin preschool activities!

(Reminder: Rolling Prairie Readers uses affiliate links at no additional cost to you. You can see our full disclosure policy here.)

DAY 1

Let’s start with a fun (and simple) writing activity! You can download this investigation sheet free in our blog post here: https://rollingprairiereaders.com/pumpkin-activity-ideas/

When you open up the pumpkin, keep in mind that some kids do NOT like getting messy. One of my girls cannot get enough of the pumpkin goo, but the other doesn’t like the way it feels on her hands.

A few years ago, I started putting a bit of the goo inside a sealed bag, and it made all the difference.

DAY 2

This video was taken on our very first day of homeschooling — you can even hear our brand-new baby in the background.

I took the hammer from our Hammer Away toy and hammered in a few golf tees into a small pumpkin. She had a ball pulling the tees out and pushing them back in, building her fine motor skills. {Hammer Away affiliate link — we paid a LOT less for ours. Keep an eye out for these at garage sales/consignment stores. https://amzn.to/3UU17SC}

Another fun way to use golf tees with your pumpkin? Make a shape sorter!

DAY 3

Save some of your pumpkin seeds to plant. They sprout really quickly, making it a cool (and easy) science experience.

DAY 4

One-to-one correspondence for kiddos is an important early math skill — not just being able to rattle off numbers 1-10 by rote memorization, but actually being able to count objects.

This fun pumpkin silicone mold (ice cube tray?) is perfect for practicing this skill! Use orange pom poms or roll out balls of playdough and count as you fill in the pumpkins. (Younger children might be able to do numbers 1-5, older children can work up to 10.)

You can add tweezers for extra fine motor practice or roll dice first for more counting practice!

Another counting activity idea is tucking pumpkin seeds into a ball of playdough. Your child can pull the seeds out and then practice sliding them across the tray while they count.

Click here to grab a free pumpkin 10-frame from our Resource Library!

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DAY 5

This activity comes from our Pumpkin Family Activity Guide. Dye dried pumpkin seeds using food coloring (with a little bit of hand sanitizer as a binding agent). Seeds can be counted, sorted, used for patterning, or added to a sensory bin.

**Note: if your child still puts items in their mouth, please wait on this activity until that phase has passed.**

DAY 6

One of my girls LOVED worksheets when she was a preschooler — my other, not so much. But they both enjoyed making these life cycle pumpkin crowns during their preschool years.

You can find the link here: https://rollingprairiereaders.com/pumpkin-activity-ideas/

DAY 7

Mix red and yellow paint to make orange, dip your child’s finger in, and stamp it on an index card. (Stamp two pumpkins on the 2 card, three pumpkins on the 3 card, and so on.) Use spring-loaded clothespins to build fine motor skills while your child practices counting their pumpkins on each card.

This is a fun, multi-day lesson that brings art, math, and literacy together.

Watch the tutorial here: https://youtu.be/caI1zY85L4s

DAY 8

Cookie cutters and pom poms are one of our favorite easy math activities. Toddlers and preschooler can smush the poms into the shape, and then you can count to see how many fit in each size. Older kids can estimate, add, and subtract using this set-up!

Our cookie cutters come from a Betty Crocker set, which appears to be out of stock right now. Here’s a cute set of five different sizes {aff link}: https://amzn.to/3LZyiQt

DAY 9

Time for some simple sensory play! Plump up some orange water beads and add pumpkin gems (affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Cwout8) — only if your kiddos are done with putting things in their mouth.

DAY 10

Our 10 days of pumpkin activities concludes with this pumpkin life cycle sensory bin from a few years ago. (This was totally child-led, and I was amazed by her creativity!)

K grabbed our 3-part pumpkin cards (I can’t find these exact cards online, but there are a bunch available at teacherspayteachers {dot} com), and used toys around the house to do this.

First, she planted our dried pumpkin seeds in our orange rice, then added the green ‘vine’ and yellow flower before bringing over one of our uncarved pumpkins to ‘harvest.’ This is the perfect example of using play for educational purposes.