Pumpkin Science Lessons and Arts and Crafts for Kindergarten

In our kindergarten science lessons, anchor charts are always a part of our learning routines,  as creating visuals is an effective way for students to learn the information about the topic of the week.  For pumpkin week, we study the life cycle.  Using this anchor chart, we act out each part of the pumpkin life cycle.
-seed (Get low to the ground, and wrap your arms around your legs. Then we pretend to put water on our heads, along with making the sun's rays come down.)
-sprout (We pop up, holding our hands up, close to our bodies.)
-vine (We spread our arms out as we wiggle them.)
-flower (Pop your hands open and closed in front of you.)
-green pumpkin (Keep one hand popped open for the flower, and make a fist behind it to represent the little green pumpkin.)
-pumpkin (Put your fingertips together, making a circular shape, and make it get bigger and bigger above your head.)
-Carve it into a jack-o-lantern! (While holding your hands above your head, make a silly face!)
-Rot into the ground. (Make your body go limp.)
Start all over!
We LOVE to act out this anchor chart over and over again throughout the week!  I love that the information sticks with the kids!!!

pumpkin craft and song

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting On a Gate is our favorite song for pumpkin week!  We create this little craft to go along with the rhyme!  The picture below is my example; the kids are encouraged to add their own faces to their jack-o-lanterns.

Pick up this little craft for your kiddos here:

pumpkin science

This pumpkin science activity is my favorite!  When the kids reach into the pumpkin to take out some seeds, the sensory experience is sure to provide this teacher with belly laughs!  Students gather a few seeds to place in a bag and take home.

I admit, the kids only take out minimal seeds, so I scrape out the rest to provide them with a visual of what the inside of the pumpkin consists of, including some pulp.

pumpkin morning work

After reviewing the pumpkin life cycle throughout the week, students complete their morning work crafting project.  Starting a craft first thing is a simple strategy for getting students busy upon arrival while also saving so much time for learning once the day begins!  The routine is that they cut out the pieces, but they do not glue them together.  They place each of the pieces under their boxes as they cut them out.  For this activity, I provided pieces for steps 1-3 in their table caddies for morning work.  By the time our day started, everyone had completed the process, and we could start right in with coloring step 4 together.  We glued the projects all at the same time, step-by-step.  This is such a smooth process, and it's a fun way to begin our day together!

life cycle of a pumpkin

Below is a picture of our completed pumpkin life cycle craft, along with some must-reads for pumpkin week, including Pumpkin Circle, The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Pumpkin Pumpkin, The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, The Runaway Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Jack.

The life cycle craft shown above is available in our store here:

I might have a slight obsession with pumpkin everything, so here's another option for a little pumpkin life cycle craft:

pumpkin math

To celebrate pumpkin week with our kindergarten math activities, we practice number identification and counting with this candy corn craft!  Students are given a number and a candy corn sheet, and they cut out that many pieces of candy to glue inside of their candy dishes.  This activity works well at a math center, too.

Get your candy corn math activity craft pack here:

Another math activity we enjoy is this super simple partner math game.  Students practice dice number recognition and counting.  Each student gets a witch's pot, clothespin, die, and a bag of 20 spiders.  They take turns rolling their die and placing that many spiders in their pot.  They use the clothespin to pick up the spiders for extra fine motor practice.  The student who runs out of spiders first wins.

Our kindergarten arts and crafts activity for pumpkin week includes creating a class pumpkin patch.  To get started, students are given the following materials:
-small white paper (eyes)
-small brown paper (stem
-small green rectangle (leaf)
-green strip (vine)
-large orange paper (pumpkin)

more pumpkin crafts

Since we read about Spookley and friends earlier in the week, we make a connection to drawing different shapes for our pumpkin features.  I love that we can tie in math activities with our art lessons!  Here is the visual I create step-by-step for the students, while encouraging them to draw shapes of their own choice.  I project the papers on the board and draw the variety of shapes on top with a dry erase marker to give them clear visual directions.  Then I cut my own pieces, and we glue together as we go.  Students are instructed to use crayons to draw eyeballs, and I draw a variety of faces on the board for them to choose from, too.

We read We're Going on a Pumpkin Hunt and students create their own pumpkin patch!

They really are the SWEETEST little pumpkins in the patch!  (Side note: This Land of Make Believe banner was given to me by a teacher friend who knows of our rainbow-themed classroom, and the statement is just SO fitting for us!  We pretend every single day throughout our learning!  LOVE!!! LOVE!! LOVE!!)

This little pumpkin stack makes an adorable locker decoration for adding a festive Fall flair to our classroom, and it's available exclusively in our TpT store.  Just click the photo below to access it.

I can't write a pumpkin blog post without including a few of our at-home pumpkin activities.  We paint pumpkins every year, and below is a photo from a few years back.  I just love it because we had a baby in the house who participated with a painted foot!

I just really love painted feet, so I wanted to capture this moment with a fall keepsake, too!

Now, back to the classroom!  We end our pumpkin week with a celebration by having a pumpkin pie taste test!

The pumpkin fairy visits while the students are at specials to prepare the big event.  (Students' families provide the items, and I'm just so incredibly grateful for their generosity with our learning activities!)

The kids are encouraged to try new things in the cafeteria every day, so this challenge is accepted with exceptionally wonderful manners!  Students take a little nibble and give a thumbs up or down opinion.  Then they fill out their survey so we can complete our class graph.

While the kids are at lunch and specials, I carve a pumpkin!  This year, I carved a spider for letter Ss week!  The kiddos get so excited to watch the progression throughout the day!

Happy pumpkin week, friends!  If you're feeling inspired, explore all of our pumpkin activities, including multiple DISCOUNTED craft bundles, by clicking the picture below: