Autumn is here, and with it all of our favorite things: colorful leaves, apple picking, and best of all - pumpkins!  Read on for fun ways to incorporate this favorite fall gourd into your classroom learning activities.

Our Pumpkin: A Seasonal Favorite from the Learn to Read Series

The Our Pumpkin reader takes nonfiction topics and sets them in an illustrated story about a class pumpkin. It's the perfect book to engage students with math and science concepts by setting up a number of pumpkin-related activities!

Start by reading the book as a class and asking some questions along the way. To help spark discussion, Our Pumpkin includes a question guide at the beginning of the book. 

Have your students follow along as the story takes you through activities that your classroom can repeat. This can be a great opportunity to coordinate a class field trip to a pumpkin patch and have students pick out their own pumpkins, but a class outing is not necessary. One classroom pumpkin, as illustrated in the book, is all that is needed.

Use the book as a guide students can follow to do their own "experiments" with their pumpkin. Have students use measuring tapes and rulers to measure various parts of the pumpkin and discuss why their measurements may not come out the same for each student.

Let students try weighing their pumpkin on different types of scales. If the pumpkin will not fit on a scale on its own, have students brainstorm how they might find the weight of their pumpkin.

Now knowing the size and weight of their pumpkin, let students hypothesize about whether or not their pumpkin will float. Then use a plastic tub filled with water to let students test their hypothesis. If possible, let students test other items of similar size and weight to see if they float. Afterwards, have a discussion about why the pumpkin did or did not float.

When you have finished following the book's illustrated activities, Our Pumpkin reader includes a related activities page that provides ideas for further pumpkin projects! When done, students carve or paint their pumpkin(s) for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, as a tactile learning and hand-eye coordination activity. Then, keep the pumpkin fun going all year-long with earth science lessons on planting seeds and decomposition. Make sure to record every activity in your students' Personal Project Portfolios as well!

You can also download the ebook version immediately with the Our Pumpkin eBook and Worksheets bundle and use it for even more classroom learning with ready-to-use activity worksheets that can been easily added to students' project portfolios. 

Pumpkin Spice Up Your Classroom

Keep the pumpkin fun going with CTP's Doodle Pumpkin decor. Use our Doodle Pumpkin EZ Border to create a cute fall bulletin display for your class pumpkin projects and our Doodle Pumpkin Calendar Days to number and track each student's pumpkin.

Our Doodle Pumpkin Rewards Stickers are great for allowing students to decorate their pumpkins and worksheets for their portfolio projects and as rewards for doing a job well done. 

Finally, use our Seasonal Accents 10" Cut-Outs and Doodle Pumpkin 6" Designer Cut-Outs to add a bit of fall around your classroom or as labels for projects, student desks, etc. 

Fun Fall Craft

This craft is perfect for practicing fine motion skills like tracing, cutting, and gluing. All you need is some white paper and left over bulletin board trimmers. Check out this blog for step by step instructions!

Download These Free Pumpkin Activity Worksheets

Already have the Our Pumpkin reader or ebook? Download these coordinating worksheets to accompany your pumpkin activity lesson plans!