23 Easy Pumpkin Theme Activities for Preschoolers

Pumpkin season is a highlight of fall (autumn) in preschool classrooms. Whether you celebrate Halloween or just enjoy the harvest season, pumpkins offer lots of opportunities for play, learning and creativity.

These easy, low-prep activities cover music, movement, literacy, art, and even science — perfect for a balanced theme week.

Art and Crafts

Pumpkin art activities are a fun way for children to explore colour, texture and different materials.

1. Colour-Mixing

Teach the children to make their own orange paint by mixing the primary colours yellow and red. Draw large pumpkins and paint them with the new orange paint.

Colour-mixing is also a fun science experiment.

2. Pumpkin Prints

Try to use older pumpkins for this activity or pumpkins that are no longer fresh, that the store might be tossing out.

Cut small pumpkins in half, dip them in some orange paint and stamp them onto paper.

3. Pumpkin Collages

Provide a big cutout of a pumpkin shape and get children to cut or tear orange and green paper to make a pumpkin collage. Cover all the white bits!

4. Pumpkin Seed Shakers

Dry out the pumpkin seeds and—after using them for all the below activities—place them into small containers and seal them to make shakers (maracas) for music time.

Music and Movement

Get children moving with these simple pumpkin-themed games, songs and movement activities.

5. Play Pass the Pumpkin

Teach your kids this fun rhyme by Miss Nina and chant or sing it as you play this twist on the classic game Pass the Parcel:

Pass the Pumpkin all around
Listen to the spooky sound
Oooooh, ooooooh,
Will it stop on you? BOO!

6. Pumpkin Rolling Race

Hold a pumpkin-rolling race indoors or outside to build coordination.

Mark a starting line and finish line, then have the children roll mini pumpkins or orange balls from one to the other.

7. Pumpkin Relay

Divide children into small teams and have a fun relay with a small pumpkin (or substitute with an orange ball).

They must run across the room or up to the next teammate and pass it to them.

8. Balancing Pumpkins

Children balance a small pumpkin on their head (between two hands) while trying to walk along a line of tape on the floor or across the room.

9. Pumpkin Hops

Place pumpkin cutouts (or paint paper plates orange) onto the floor and hop from pumpkin to pumpkin being careful not to fall into the garden bed.

10. Do You Know How Pumpkins Grow?

This song by The Kiboomers is sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" and is great for teaching the process from planting to harvesting pumpkins.

Here's the first verse:

Do you know how pumpkins grow,
Pumpkins grow, pumpkins grow,
Do you know how pumpkins grow?
In my vegetable garden?

11. Five Little Pumpkins

Teach your children this classic fingerplay about five pumpkins sitting on a gate. It teaches rhythm, rhyme and sequencing.

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate
The first one said, “Oh my! It’s getting late!”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air!”
The third one said, “But we don’t care!”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run!”
The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!”
Then OoOoOo went the wind and OUT went the light
And the five little pumpkins, rolled out of sight!

12. I'm a Little Pumpkin

Sing the song that goes with the storybook "I'm a Little Pumpkin" to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".

Here is the first verse:

I'm a little pumpkin—yes, I am.
Here are my leaves.
Here is my stem!

13. Pumpkin Poses

Try some poses or exercises such as:

• Curl up small like a seed in the ground. Breathe deeply and rest.
• Squat like a pumpkin on the ground.
• Stretch and slowly rise up tall with arms reaching overhead like a pumpkin vine growing.
• Sit cross-legged and twist your body slowly from side to side like a pumpkin vine curling in the wind.

Literacy and Stories

Bring pumpkins into story time with books, vocabulary games and simple language activities.

14. Read-Alouds

Here are some ideas of books to read to your children:

• Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington tells the story of a little boy who plants a seed.

• Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White is about Rebecca Estelle, a woman who unexpectedly ends up with a huge crop of pumpkins despite having disliked them since childhood.

• In Pumpkin Jack, by Will Hubbell, Tim names the first pumpkin he ever carves.

15. Pumpkin Would You Rather

Play a quick game of Would You Rather with a pumpkin theme. Ask children to provide reasons for their choices. Here are some prompt ideas:

• Would you rather eat pumpkin soup or pumpkin pie?
• Would you rather pick a tiny pumpkin or a huge pumpkin?
• Would you rather carve a pumpkin with a happy face or a scary face?
• Would you rather roll a pumpkin down a hill or across the grass?
• Would you rather count pumpkin seeds or pumpkins in a patch?

16. Pumpkin Word Wall

Create a pumpkin vocabulary wall with pictures or pumpkin cutouts and words such as seed, vine, stem, patch, round and orange.

17. Odd One Out

The Odd One Out Game is a fun way to get children to build vocabulary and introduce them to categories.

Give children groups of four words or pictures and ask them to spot which one does not belong. Encourage them to explain their choice.
For example:

• Pumpkin, carrot, orange, broccoli — broccoli is the odd one out because the others are orange.
• Pumpkin, pencil, palace, chair — chair is the odd one out because the others begin with the letter P.
• Pumpkin, apple, banana, shoe — shoe is the odd one out because the others are foods.
• Pumpkin, marble, ball, orange — marble is the odd one out because the others are larger and round.

Maths and Science

Explore counting, measuring, sorting and simple science concepts with real pumpkins and seeds.

18. Smallest to Biggest

Teach children about ordering and seriation by getting them to arrange a set of pumpkins in order from smallest to biggest, and then biggest to smallest, starting on the left.

19. Count the Pumpkin Seeds

Open a pumpkin, scoop the seeds out, clean them and then count or sort them. You could count them into empty egg cartons or help the children count out enough seeds to make their music shakers.

20. Sink or Float Experiment

Test pumpkins of different sizes by placing them into a large water table or bucket of water. Then try dropping some seeds into the water and seeing if those float.

21. Measuring Pumpkins

Explore measurement by wrapping string around each pumpkin and comparing the lengths to see which pumpkin has the greatest circumference.

Dramatic Play and Social-Emotional Learning

Use pumpkin-themed pretend play and discussion to encourage imagination, communication and emotional awareness.

22. Pumpkin Patch Pretend Play

Set up a “pumpkin patch” or market stall with toy or real pumpkins for buying and selling. Provide extra props such as play money, shop signs, baskets, etc.

23. Pumpkin Feelings Faces

Cut pumpkin shapes from orange cardstock and draw different expressions on them such as happy, sad, surprised, or scared. Use them in circle time to talk about emotions and how pumpkins (and children) can show different feelings through facial expressions.

Pumpkins are the perfect fall/autumn theme — simple, versatile, and engaging. From songs and rhymes to science experiments and dramatic play, these activities bring the season to life in your classroom or home setting.

Next, explore more seasonal fun with the Halloween theme activities, fall activities, nocturnal animals or browse the full list of preschool themes and activities for year-round ideas.