Confessions from Toddler School: Pumpkin Activities for Toddlers!

Pumpkins! 🎃

I am definitely more excited than my kids about this theme! Why else would I drag them to a pumpkin patch not one, not two, but 6 times this month (and that was before the middle of October 🤣)! 

Here's what we did this week:

You can get my blank thematic planner here.

Books:

I had a hard time narrowing down books this week because I just love them all (my pumpkin addiction runs deep)! But these were the one's Cohen loved the most! 

Five Little Pumpkins: This has been a favorite since Cohen was a baby and little brother loved it this year too! For some reason the "Oooo went the wind and out went the lights" gets big giggles in this house!

Pumpkin Day (Ransom): This was my favorite because Cohen picked it up and read the whole thing himself! I was so impressed by him! He knew words I didn't even know he knew! And hearing his sweet little voice read it was just the best.

Activities:

Label the Pumpkin: 

I absolutely love using interactive anchor charts at home! And this one was perfect! Cohen loves learning new things and repeatedly sharing this new information. So we got a lot of use out of this bad boy! 

We worked together to label the parts of a pumpkin and we reviewed it frequently! 

Pumpkin Boats:

We used this activity as a fun little science exploration! We learned all about sinking and floating! 

Before busting out the mini pumpkins we put some of our toys in the water and talked about how things that are heavier than water sink and things that are lighter than water float. 

I then had him guess if the pumpkins would sink or float to assess if he understood the concept -- he did! He even told me why he thought they would sink (because they were heavy).

He thought it was exciting (and silly) that they floated! We then tried to fill them with stuff to make them heavier so they would sink!

Pumpkin Erasing:

This is one of the easiest activities we've ever done and the possibilities are endless! Using a wet erase marker write whatever skill you want to practice all over the pumpkin. Give child a wipe and call out what you want them to find!

You can do anything:

- letters (name recognition, sound recognition, beginning sounds)

- numbers (can do number recognition, basic addition, subtraction)

- shapes

- sight words

- pictures (counting, beginning sounds, rhyming words)

- play guess the word/sentence (like hangman but I dislike that name so we call it guess the word)

See! Endless! Get creative!

Pumpkin Exploration:

This one was nothing fancy! We cut into a pumpkin and explored! The only thing we did "special" was to bring our anchor chart over to talk about the things we were finding inside the pumpkin.

I was so proud of Cohen for getting his hands dirty with this one! Sometimes he can be a little hesitant with tactile experiences so this was a huge win for us. He loooved squishing the pumpkin guts. 

We also baked the pumpkin seeds after and he was so excited to try them!

Pumpkin Games:

I found these foam pumpkins at dollar tree several years ago and kept forgetting to use them! So I literally put a reminder in my phone to use them this year! Does anyone else have to put weird reminders in their calendars or is that just me!? 🤣 Anyways, we used these to play all kinds of games!

Emotion Hop: 

I placed emotions all around the house. I would call one out and we would race to the right one! 

Letter/Number/Sight Word Hop: 

I put them out all over the floor and we hopped from one to another. We played in order a few times and randomly sometimes! 

Sequencing:

We gathered all the numbers and/or letters and practiced putting them in the proper sequence. Cohen loves to challenge himself and do it backwards too!

CVC Blending:

We used the letters to practice sounding out and spelling CVC words! For an added challenge I would ask him to change one letter at a time to build new words. (For example: With the word top I would say, "Can you change one letter to make the word tap?") I would switch out beginning, middle or ending sound to change so he got practice with all of it!

Pumpkin Tracing:

 I don't know why but I really loved this one! I wish I had given the boys markers to use because it would have showed off their art even better. Oh well! Live and learn right!?

I laid out a large piece of butcher paper, crayons and a handful of mini pumpkins! We traced the pumpkins all over the paper. It's so cute, I may use it as a table cloth for awhile!

Felt Pumpkin Faces:

This is one of our recurring activities! I made these cute little felt faces 2 years ago and they are a huge hit! And pro tip: if you have a fabric couch they stick to it! 👌

Outings:

Pumpkin Patch:

Of course! Cohen talked for weeks about his perfect pumpkin: short, fat and bumpy! And I think he nailed it!

What are your favorite pumpkin activities!?

Up next: Spiders 🕸🕷🕸