1-2-3 Come Do Some Activities For The "5 Little Pumpkins" Poem With Me

One of the seasonal poems I do for October, is “5 Little Pumpkins Sitting On a Gate”.   (Click this link to take a look at an animated version on YouTube.)

The poem is chock full of Dolch words, rhymes, has ordinal numbers and is a fun way to practice counting with little ones.

With that in mind, I made up some quick, easy and fun activities for the “5 Little Pumpkins”, which practice a variety of standards and am featuring 3 (hot-off-the-press) packets on the blog today. 

First up is a simple "flip the flap" craftivity, which is a super-fun way for students to read and share the "5 Little Pumpkins" poem.  

Besides the black and white templates for students, I’ve also included colorful patterns, so that you can quickly and easily make a sample to share.

Even if you don’t do this as a whole-group activity, you can whip one together for yourself to use as a storytelling manipulative, which will be a great visual for your students.

I’ve also included an “Itty Bitty” emergent reader booklet for children to color, cut and collate.

Have them pick a partner and take turns reading to each other, then encourage them to remember to read it to their families.  

Next up, is another quick "5 Little Pumpkins" craftivity. 

My kiddos absolutely LOVE making and wearing crowns, so I thought it would be fun to design 5 crown options for my own little pumpkins.

The patterns come in color as well as black and white.

Children color, trim around the crown, then glue the bottom to the center of a sentence strip, or length of card stock.

Bulletin board border also works really well, and adds extra pizzazz because you can choose either plain or a  Halloween-themed pattern. 

Afterwards I have my kiddos line up and we have a pumpkin parade, marching around the room to some spooky music. 

Finally, I created a jumbo, "5 Little Pumpkins" packet, with a nice assortment of simple activities which help practice a variety of standards.

The packet includes:

* 2 versions of the poem.
The original with the line “witches in the air”, as well as an optional poem which changes the line to “bats in the air”.

The poems come in a colorful poster, as well as black and white “color me” worksheets.

One features the words for emergent readers, while another alternative for PK kiddos, has just the pictures.

* I’ve also included a fence and 5 pumpkin manipulatives for telling the “story”.

There's also a colorful set of pocket chart, sentence cards. (For both versions.)

* Plus pocket chart cards that feature numbers 1-5, with the number words, and a group of pumpkins showing that many.

* There’s a matching set with “cutting lines” so that you can make an independent puzzle center, as well as a set of ordinal number cards children can sequence.

* Plus a set of "Memory Match" cards, which can also be used to play “I Have; Who Has?” games.

* An “Out went the light” storytelling-pumpkin craft
* 5 pumpkin-themed worksheets

* A “5 Little Pumpkins” Itty Bitty booklet
* A “Pumpkins On A Roll” dice game
* 2 “I Spy” a number game sheets, which are wonderful for whole group assessing.

* A pumpkin “slider” craftivity, which will help practice numbers 1-5, 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1, as well as skip counting by 5s. And finally…

* Pete the Cat has a “5 Little Pumpkins” book out, so I’ve included a worksheet where students “trace the numbers” and color the pumpkins who are “rolling out of sight” on a skateboard.  This is today's featured FREEBIE.  Click on the link to grab your copy.  

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

We are losing some of our beautiful autumn leaves today, as it's windy with a misty drizzle. 

Just the kind of weather for a spicy hot cup of apple cider and a good book.  Wishing you a peaceful and snuggly day.

"There's something about autumn that lifts up our senses and reminds us to truly take a moment to notice all of the beauty that surrounds us, which we sometimes take for granted." -Unknown