DIY Pumpkin Manipulatives & Activities

Okay, here is a simple project you can do yourself to make fun, colorful pumpkin manipulatives! (DO NOT EAT!!)

• What you need:
• Brach’s Candy Pumpkins
• Spray Paint (my favorite is Rustoleum Double Cover, usually at Walmart, Home Depot, or Lowes)

*If you buy them AFTER Halloween they are typically half off, depending on where you go.

Buy a couple or a few bags of candy pumpkins, depending on how many you want to make. I used the basic colors of spray paint – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, and Black (I may need to make more in white, brown and grey colors).

I set out some newsprint (or butcher paper) in the garage, and be sure to open the doors/windows. Then you paint!

It really is such a simple project. I even painted the orange ones, just to make sure the kids didn’t ever try to sneak a little nibble, since these will be played with a lot and years old (YUCK!!)

Another option if you don't want to paint the pumpkins is to grab a sharpie. You can draw shapes, write numbers or letters, or dots on the bottom of the pumpkins. If you make 2 sets of each you can play memory and other matching games. EASY!!

Then play with them! Here are some ideas...

1. Sort by color 

2. Arrange them in rows

3. Use for any "find and cover" activities

4. Make letters or shape outlines using the pumpkins

5. Put in a sensory bin

6. Draw out of a bag or bin and graph it

7. Sing & act out “5 little pumpkins”

8. Pumpkin Counting

9. Line up in order of the alphabet

10. Line up, least to greatest & vice versa

11. Spell simple CVC words

12. Play memory match (with shapes or letters/numbers on the bottom)

13. Pick a number pumpkin and count that many colored pumpkins

          14.  Match numbers or letters

There are so many ways you can use these pumpkin manipulatives! 

Share in a comment how you have used them, or even how you plan to use them! Let me know if you make these or tag me on Instagram @preschoolalphabet.

*More Pumpkin preschool ideas can be found here

--Kiley

Pumpkin Fun

This is probably my favorite way to do a Pumpkin Life Cycle. I printed it out years ago and thanks to Pinterest, just found the printable again!

 

• Pumpkin Life Cycle
1. Use 2 orange paper plates (or cut out 2 orange circles like we did!)
2. Tape a length of green ribbon and a stem to the top of one plate.
3. Staple the two circles together to form a pumpkin pocket.
4. Print, cut out and color the life cycle pieces.
5. Starting with the “seed” at the very end of the ribbon (farthest from the pumpkin) tape the ribbon inside, fold on the dotted line, then staple to secure.
6. Repeat with each piece.
7. Finally, draw a jack-o-lantern face on the large pumpkin.
8. Now you can tuck the vine and life cycle pieces into the pumpkin pocket and pull out each one as you re-tell how a pumpkin grows!

  

• Pumpkin Hunt … these are the pictures from our Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin Hunt (thanks again Rachel!) This was just as much fun as an Easter egg hunt and more fun than I thought it would be in October!
1. Print your lumpy and round pumpkins here.
2. Hide the pumpkins around the yard just like you would an egg hunt. I gave the kids their trick-or-treat buckets and they had a ball running around finding them.
3. Sort the pumpkins into smooth vs. bumpy pumpkins.
4. Sort again by color (I printed a set in orange and a set in yellow)
5. Pumpkin Race … use the same pumpkins!
• Spread the pumpkins out all over the grass.
• Label one bucket with a lumpy pumpkin, a second with a round pumpkin (see bottom, right picture).
• The kids run out, find one pumpkin, run it back and place it in the matching bucket.
• Run out to find another pumpkin, run back….
6. Hide & Switch … let the kid’s take charge
• Have the kids choose one of the sorted buckets (after your pumpkin race)
• Let them hide their pumpkins all around the yard.
• Then have them switch buckets and now find all of the other pumpkins!
7. There are probably a million other things you could do with these. We had a fun afternoon!

Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin

When I hopped over to I Heart Crafty Things (great preschool ideas!) the other day, I was so excited to see that Rachel had done some fun activities with her kids and the book “Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin” by Mary Serfozo. We had just returned that book to the library and my kids and I had loved it too. It has great rhyming text and the best descriptive words that made it fun to read over (and over and over) again.

So I decided to have a Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin day.

• Read “Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin” by Mary Serfozo. Available here.
• Mini Pumpkin Patch
  1. Every year I collect several mini pumpkins/squash/gourds from the store. Besides being fun for decorations, my kids love playing with them, sorting them and pretending to have their own mini pumpkin patch.
  2. Hands on! Feel the mini pumpkins … some are bumpy, some are smooooth.
  3. Compare the colors. My oldest naturally starts to sort them into like colors
  4. Describe them. You’ll seriously love the descriptions in the book. How would you describe your mini pumpkins?
  5. And chances are, my kids will decide to roll all of them, but even that can be fun. Some roll smooth and straight. Others roll bumpy crazy.

• Dumply Pumpkin Hunt
  1. Print out several bumpy and round pumpkins in a couple different shades of orange. I made up a quick page of plumply, dumply and lumpy, bumpy pumpkins above. Feel free to print it (just click & download.)
  2. Cut out and laminate.
  3. Hide the pumpkins all around the yard or in the house.
  4. Give the kids buckets and let them hunt for all the pumpkins!
  5. Count the pumpkins to make sure you have them all!
  6. Sort the pumpkins by color or use them to create patterns.
  7. Sort the bumpy and plumply pumpkins into two separate boxes. Attach an example of each pumpkin to the front of each box.

• Plumply Rice Crispy Pumpkin Treats
  1. Make a batch of Rice Crispy treats and tint them orange.
  2. When cool enough, butter your hands and shape into balls (the lumpy bumpier, the better)
  3. Shape a softened tootsie roll into a stumpy stem for the top!

(thanks Rachel for the great ideas!)

Pumpkin Day

We had a great Pumpkin Day at my friend Camie’s house for preschool last week! She always plans such fun activities and yummy treats.

 

• Cheerio Pumpkin Necklaces … great fine motor and patterning skills!
  1. Need a length of ribbon, bowl of cheerios and orange paper pumpkin cut-outs with a hole punched in each one.
  2. The kids laced one pumpkin, 10 cheerios, one pumpkin, 10 cheerios…
  3. Tie and wear!

   

• Five Little Pumpkins Poem
  1. A classic Halloween poem to do with the kids. I don’t think my 3 and 2-year-old had ever heard it before, but they were repeating it the rest of the day!
  2. Click the images above to print in black & white or click here for color (scroll all the way to the bottom). 
  3. Cut the pictures in half and use as you tell the poem or staple together into a little booklet!
  4. Have the kids hold up their fingers for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th pumpkins. Make up simple hand actions for each part. Clap your hands together for “OUT went the lights” and roll your arms for “rolled out of sight!”

• Read “Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!” by Charles Ghigna …great rhyming text & illustrations.

 

• Pumpkin Graph … I thought this was great for the kids! I need to try to get better pictures. We’re always doing so much that I forget

1. In “Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!” some of the pumpkins are carved into jack-o-lanterns. The kids looked at all of the different faces.
2. Have several copies of each pumpkin face. I made a few different faces to use. If you promise not to laugh, you’re welcome to click and print them
3. Ask the kids “What type of face will your pumpkin have?”
4. Let them choose a face card and add it to the graph. Stack similar cards on top of each other to form a simple graph!

    

• Pumpkin Patterns
  1. Print out several small pumpkin & apple clipart. There are a couple to choose from above (from Microsoft Clipart). Camie’s were so much cuter!
  2. Show the kids a simple AB pattern … pumpkin, apple, pumpkin, apple…
  3. Ask them what would come next.
  4. Let them glue an AB pattern to a long strip of paper!

 

• Pumpkin Life Cycle
  1. Show simple pictures of a pumpkin life cycle.
  2. There is a great printable here.

 

• Paper Plate Pumpkins … what a fun, simple craft! The sticker pieces made this so easy!
  1. Use an orange paper plate and punch a hole in the top (for the stem)
  2. Cut out jack-o-lantern pieces (eyes, nose, mouth) from black sticky back foam paper. My kids apparently like Picasso pumpkins
  3. Add sparkly green foam paper leaves and a stem.
  4. Twist a green pipe cleaner through the hole and twist to make vines!
  5. TIP: These come in ready-to-make kits at Michael’s right now.

• Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie … possibly my favorite part of preschool … snack time This ice cream pie was delicious. The kids (and moms) gobbled it up. Get the super easy recipe on my friend Camie’s blog, Pass the Peas Please.

Pumpkins (also see Halloween)

• Handprint Pumpkins
  1. Make 2 green handprints using green tempera paint on green paper.
  2. When dry, cut out and glue to the top of an orange pumpkin cutout.
  3. Staple a green curling ribbon vine to the top.
  4. Have the kids write their names on their pumpkin.

    

• Pumpkin Seed Number Match
  1. Make 5 pumpkin cutouts from orange paper. You can use the pumpkins above, one of your own, or just cut out a round, orange circle and add a simple green stem on top.
  2. Label the left side with numbers 1-5.
  3. Have the kids help glue the corresponding number of pumpkin seeds to the right side of the pumpkin.
  4. Puzzle-cut each pumpkin down the middle.
  5. Mix up the pieces and let the kids count the seeds and match the pumpkins.

• Pumpkin Face Coloring Page
  1. Print the page above from Twisty Noodle. (I love Twisty Noodle pages because you can customize the text!)
  2. Trace the letters & color the picture.
  3. Use black paper to cut out shapes for eyes, a nose, a mouth. Let the kids cut them out – great practice!
  4. Glue the face onto your pumpkin!

• How a Pumpkin Grows Sequence Cards
  1. Click the link above for a great printable!
  2. Color the cards & cut them apart.
  3. Let the kids arrange them in order from seed to pumpkin to pumpkin pie!

snack idea: Pumpkin Pancakes

1. Use orange tinted pancake batter to make circle pancakes.
2. Put fruit cocktail in a bowl, let the kids make faces using the fruit.
3. Drizzle fruit-flavored syrup on top.
4. NOTE: The Mailbox, 2006-2007 Yearbook, Preschool, pg. 67 ... has cute picture recipe cards for the kids to "read" and follow the directions

Pumpkin Faces (Halloween)

   

1. Using orange craft foam paper, cut out large pumpkin shapes. I did one tall pumpkin and one short, wide pumpkin.
2. Add a green foam stem.
3. Using black foam paper (not sticky on the back) cut out a variety of eyes, noses and mouth shapes.
4. Build funny, scary and goofy jack-o-lanterns! The best part is that you can take them off and build another one!