Pumpkin Activities and Games

1-2-3 Come Do Some Pumpkin Activities With Me!

A quick, easy and fun way to help little ones understand number sense, is to have them practice 1-to-1 correspondence. The numbered apple cards, were such a huge success, I decided to make some with pumpkins. With the repetition, children feel empowered, as they know what to do; you don't have to spend time explaining directions, and because there's a new theme, students' interest is still high.

I've included a set of 1-10 pumpkins in color, as well as a set in black and white. Print off, laminate and trim several sets of colored pumpkins. Using small manipulatives such as mini-pom pom's, flat-backed jewels, or pony beads is great fine motor practice.You can run off the black line set and send home with students who need more help, or as a table top worksheet, have children draw X number of "seeds" to match the number on the pumpkin.

I've found that using a smaller card, instead of one with all 10 pumpkins on it, is less overwhelming for little ones, and keeps them from messing up their piles as they work. When a child completes a mat, they can get another one with higher numbers. You can also use a set of mats to review ordinal numbers. Click on the link to view/download the 1-to-1 Correspondence Pumpkin cards.

Another quick and easy fall game, is Peek-A-Boo Pumpkins. It took me an entire morning to design yesterday, but only half an hour to make the actual game, so little ones can play it. You'll find it so worth your effort, as you can do lots of things with just the letter cards! I've included a list of activities + Kaboom cards to play even more games.

To make the Peek-A-Boo alphabet game, simply trace the pumpkin template onto orange construction paper and cut 4-6 pumpkins at a time. Fold the pumpkins in half, and glue just the edge, to the left side of your yellow-construction paper cards, so that the pumpkin will flip open on both sides of the card, revealing the little ghost. You can write the letters by hand, or use an extra set of pumpkin tiles and glue them to the front of the pumpkin. I colored mine to add a bit more pizzazz.

Children choose a card, and look at the letter on the front of the pumpkin. They place the matching lowercase letter tile on the card, that they think will match the ghost hiding under the pumpkin. They flip up the pumpkin to see if they are correct.

To add math practice to the activity, have children keep track of how many answers they get right, by making tally marks on their "pumpkin pal". When children have done all of the uppercase pumpkins, they can flip the cards over and do the lowercase ones on another day. Click on the link to view/download The Peek-A-Boo Alphabet Pumpkin Game.

For a Pumpkin Word Find, click on the link. There's an alphabetical list of wonderful pumpkin words to increase your students' vocabularies.

As a little something for "early finishers" print off some easy-to-difficult pumpkin mazes, by clicking on the link: "A-maze-ing" Pumpkins. I hope YOUR "little punkins" enjoy these fall activities with a pumpkin theme.

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