Pumpkin Day Celebration

My kids are huge fans of the celebration kits that are included with our monthly themed preschool curriculum from Mother Goose Time. This month, the focus is on the Pumpkin Patch. Since this year, we grew our own pumpkin in the backyard, the kids were extremely interested in learning more about pumpkins and diving into these pumpkin and fall themed activities and adventures. The ideas in this kit were a big hit with my kiddos and I’m happy to be able to share them with you.

We started our pumpkin celebration with this simple song and finger play!

Sing
Where is Pumpkin? (to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Where is pumpkin? Where is pumpkin?
Here I am, here I am.
Sitting in the pumpkin patch, sitting in the pumpkin patch.
It is autumn, it is autumn.

Finger Play
Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “Oh, my it’s getting late!”
(Put up on finger.)
The second one said, “There’s a storm in the air.”
(Put up two fingers.)
The third one said, “But we don’t care.”
(Put up three fingers.)
The fourth one said, “Let’s run, let’s run!”
(Put up four fingers.)
The fifth one said, “Isn’t autumn fun?”
(Put up five fingers.)

Then WOOOOOO went the wind,
(Wiggle all five fingers.)
And OUT went the lights,
(Make a fist.)
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
(Roll hand over hand.)

Design Your Own Pumpkin

We explored a real pumpkin in the backyard and found all the parts: the stem, outside shell, flesh, pulp, and seeds.

Yes, this is the pumpkin we grew in our own backyard!

Then, we created our own little craft pumpkins.

Using old magazines, we stuffed small lunch paper bags and tied the top with a green pipe cleaner. We painted the bottom orange, except for Owl who requested a blue pumpkin 🙂 Then, we cut out shapes from black construction paper and used them to make a face on our pumpkins.

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater Snack

We took a snack break and enjoyed some bread with cheese slices with faces cut into them.

Pin the Patch on the Scarecrow

We dressed up as scarecrows. Ladybug was a “Lady Scarecrow” complete in “super fancy dress.” Her words, not mine 🙂 We rolled a dice that had patterns that matched different “patches” that the kids were then able to “pin” (we used masking tape) to the scarecrow. Both kids preferred aiming for the scarecrow’s face instead of his pants.

Beware of the Bat

We had some fun counting and matching numbers on cats and pumpkins, while trying to avoid picking the card with the bat. Ladybug did an amazing job of matching up numbers on cats and pumpkins.

Pumpkin Pounding

The kids enjoyed designing their own pumpkin and helping to carve it by using golf tees and a child friendly hammer.

We had a lot of success having the kids first draw or describe what shapes they wanted the pumpkins to have for eyes, nose, and mouth. Then, the kids followed that design and hammered in the golf tees along the drawn lines. Then, the adults came behind and cut out those shapes.

Ladybug at four was able to do this activity all on her own.

Owl at two and half years old needed some assistance, which Daddy was happy to supply.

Ladybug was adamant that she wanted to carve the pumpkin she grew in the backyard all by herself, so we tried letting her put as many holes in the pumpkin as she could using the golf tees. Alas, when we tried to light the pumpkin with a candle, there wasn’t enough room for oxygen to get to the flame and it quickly died. Ladybug loves her pumpkin anyway, so we left it exactly as she did.

Pumpkin Seed Search

We also hid a few pumpkin seeds in dirt for my little nature detectives to find. I gave Ladybug a set of tweezers to pull them out and Owl was given a spoon. We used dried coffee grounds for dirt.