Pumpkin Activities for Elementary Students

Check out these fun pumpkin activities for elementary students!  Pumpkin games and pumpkin lesson plans are just a few of the ways I like to introduce project-based learning to my students. Teach students about the life cycle of a pumpkin while having them plan and prep a pumpkin patch can be so much fun! 

Pumpkin Worksheets

Now, let's create a pumpkin project in your classroom through creative play and project based learning. Students will ultimately design their own pumpkin patch using the help of team leaders along the way: Vocabulary Victor, Melanie Maps, Close Reading Catie, Foldable Frankie, and Purchasing Patti, each of whom has his or her own specific step of the process. To make my life a little bit easier, I split my students into groups, but they could work as individuals, also. Also, a great tip is to allow each group to rotate and learn about every aspect of the project.

Here's an example group format :

Group 1 starts with vocabulary while Group 2 begins with the close reading passages. Next, Group 2 might then rotate back to the vocabulary while Group 1 moves forward to the close reading passages. Each group should complete all of the pieces in the project, but this package is designed to work as you need it to in your classroom.

Pumpkin Reading Activities

Have your students begin reading some of the fun close reading passages with Close Reading Catie. First, introduce the learning pal and have one student from the group read her “About Me” section. Once students have learned about their pal, have them begin reading some of the close reading passages for their project.

Vocabulary

Similarly, another way to help students learn unfamiliar terms is to introduce vocabulary words within their reading passages. Again, these visual vocabulary cards are perfect for your ELL students.  As a constant resource, I like to display these on a bulletin board in my classroom throughout the duration of our project.

Writing

Considering the pumpkin patch planning process will require a written proposal, it's important to focus on these activities to help your students develop their writing skills. Plus, these activities develop higher order thinking skills that are suitable for students in grades 3-5. Each proposal will guide them through the steps of creating their own pumpkin patch including patch name, equipment needed (see purchasing section), a map description, descriptive pumpkin life cycle, and more.

SnapChat Your Pumpkin Patch

It's okay if you keep asking yourself. “What does Snapchat have to do with pumpkin activities for elementary students?” Well, one way to get the students involved in pumpkin art is to bring in one of their favorite apps! Snapchat! While we are learning about pumpkins through our guided reading, I have my students draw a picture of their own “award winning pumpkin” on the SnapChat worksheet. For inspiration, they could pull from the articles or from some of the books we read as supplemental reading, which can be found here. If you're interested, all of these fun activities can be found here in my PBL Pumpkin resource.

Designing a Pumpkin Patch

Last but not least, it's time to design your pumpkin patch! In all honesty, this is my favorite part of my pumpkin activities for elementary students. We spend the majority of our time on this section. Admittedly, I tend to spend more time in my class on things I enjoy the most – don't you?  Begin with purchasing our farm materials then move to designing our patch by mapping it out on our papers. By this point, the students are very knowledgeable about pumpkins and their growth process. Finally, I find that the students’ designs are always incredible!

In fact, you can purchase the Project Based Learning Resource all on Pumpkins here.

By the way – do you want to start using digital interactive notebooks in your classroom? Read more about that here.