We were a little disorganised this year and didn’t get our pumpkins until Hallowe’en. It seemed such a shame to throw them away almost as soon as we had made them. To avoid this the pumpkins were incorporated into our play, building on the children’s interest in pattern making and investigating some of the questions and discoveries they made when we visited the pumpkin patch.
One of the things I love about living here is that we don’t have to go to the supermarket to buy our pumpkins because there are pumpkin patches everywhere. I love that the children can find out how pumpkins grow by wading their way through the leaves and mud to find the perfect pumpkin.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Pumpkin Play
Exploring Inside a Pumpkin and Learning about Seeds
I removed the top of one of the pumpkins and gave the girls spoons to explore what was inside.
Look at all the seeds, they look like lemons but with no other sideIt’s a slother pumpkin. It feels really cold. There are lots of stringy bits, they look like messy hair.
We talked about saving the seeds for the Spring, so that we could try to plant pumpkins in the garden next year. This lead to a discussion about how the seeds were spread.
How do the seeds get out of the pumpkin if they are in the pumpkin patch?
The pumpkin gets mouldy and then the seeds can come out.
Do you know how the seeds are spread?
No
What happens to a dandelion seed?
Where are the dandelions seeds?
The seeds are on the dandelion clock.
Oh so they get blown around.
Yes. Does this happen to the pumpkin?
No
We talked about how the animals spread the seeds – the girls thought it was a bit disgusting to talk about poo so we left it at that but later read ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle to remind ourselves how other seeds are spread.
2. Scientific Experiments
How Does the Pumpkin get Soft?
I think we eat this bit because it’s all juicy but it is hard. How do we make it soft?
Hmm, can you think of any ideas?
I know we could make it wet and then dry it.
We could sprinkle it with soft sugar.
We could cover it with a bag.
We covered one half of the pumpkin with a warm flannel to see what would happen.
We sprinkled the other half with caster sugar.
After 30 minutes we checked to see what had happened.
It didn’t work, it just got wet on my side.
What about the sugary side?
It feels softer, the sugar is softer but the pumpkin is hard.
I asked the girls if they could remember how I made spaghetti squash soft (when I tried to cut it, it was so hard I cut my finger instead). They couldn’t remember. I said that they had been along the right lines when they decided to warm it.
How could we warm it?
Put it in the microwave
or?
The oven.
Yes that’s how I made the squash soft.
3. Paint a Pumpkin
We painted our largest pumpkin with acrylic paint. The acrylic paint remains shiny .
4. Make a Squirrel Feeder
With the painted pumpkin we made a squirrel feeder by removing a section at the front and sprinkling it with birdseed. We often have squirrels in the garden but this gave us a good opportunity to watch them close up.
Filling the feeder with seed
Here comes the squirrel
squirrel feeding
5. Fairy Toadstools
Our garden is full of toadstools in this damp Autumnal weather and we have been exploring them to see if we could find any fairies.
Turning the top of the pumpkin upside down made a perfect fairy toadstool for our flower-pot. We are also going to watch and document what happens as the pumpkin starts to decay. It might make a nice art or photography project for the girls.
6. Pumpkin Poetry
I helped the girls to make up a poem about a pumpkin using some of the descriptions I had recorded them saying.
Pumpkins by my 5-year old
Pumpkins are very orange
Inside they have seeds
The seeds look like lemons
And feel slimy and cold.
Around the seeds it is orange and stringy
It looks like crazy hair.
The bottom is lumpy and chunky
I call it the core.
7. Pumpkin Juice.
I sliced and peeled the pumpkin we had been exploring and we used it to make pumpkin juice.
Ingredients (quantities according to taste)
Pumpkin
Apple
Carrot
Ginger
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
8. Seed Collage
One of our current topics is pattern. We used the pumpkin seeds alongside other seeds and pulses to make collages.
9. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
As a healthy snack we tried roasted pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 25 minutes.
10. Mr Potato Head
We still have one small sweet pumpkin left to make into a pumpkin curry.
Further ideas
Use the seeds for measuring in a balance scale
Use the seeds in a play or mud kitchen
Put a hollow pumpkin in the water tray
Make pumpkin cookies
Make pumpkin drafts or checkers
Roll pumpkins down a hill and see which one reaches the bottom first.
Give children trays of seeds with scoops and containers.
Use the seeds with clay or pumpkin scented playdough.
5 thoughts on “10 Preschool Activities using Leftover Pumpkins”
Oh man, I am so slack. I forgot about ours after Halloween and left it in the porch until it had gone mouldy and attracted some flies, then threw it away. 56 crap mum points to me. Will remember these ideas next year.
First up, I am so jealous as I have never been to a pumpkin patch! There are so many things to do with a pumpkin here, a great resource, I loved Mr Potato head pumpkin.
That’s a brilliant list of activities. I had to laugh at the fact your girls didn’t want to talk about poo when my boys talk about nothing else! Lets hope this changes as they get older (mine, not yours) 😀
Pumpkins are so versatile, like you I love roasting the seeds and making soups and other recipes. It’s great to see how many experiments and fun learning the children are having with them. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
Pumpkins are amazing things – and you have made them even more amazing! What wonderful ideas, particularly the MR Potato Head at the end. Thanks so much for linking up to the Parenting Pin it party this week.
We were a little disorganised this year and didn’t get our pumpkins until Hallowe’en. It seemed such a shame to throw them away almost as soon as we had made them. To avoid this the pumpkins were incorporated into our play, building on the children’s interest in pattern making and investigating some of the questions and discoveries they made when we visited the pumpkin patch.
Right from the Start 
Oh man, I am so slack. I forgot about ours after Halloween and left it in the porch until it had gone mouldy and attracted some flies, then threw it away. 56 crap mum points to me. Will remember these ideas next year.
LikeLike
First up, I am so jealous as I have never been to a pumpkin patch! There are so many things to do with a pumpkin here, a great resource, I loved Mr Potato head pumpkin.
LikeLike
That’s a brilliant list of activities. I had to laugh at the fact your girls didn’t want to talk about poo when my boys talk about nothing else! Lets hope this changes as they get older (mine, not yours) 😀
LikeLike
Pumpkins are so versatile, like you I love roasting the seeds and making soups and other recipes. It’s great to see how many experiments and fun learning the children are having with them. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
LikeLike
Pumpkins are amazing things – and you have made them even more amazing! What wonderful ideas, particularly the MR Potato Head at the end. Thanks so much for linking up to the Parenting Pin it party this week.
LikeLike