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Pumpkins are everywhere and learning with pumpkins is a great way to help your kids learn science, math, reading and more! While they are a beautiful fall decoration, they also can be a wonderful tool for educating our kids. Even while carving the pumpkin as a family, you can be creative and learn together.
* If you have different sizes of pumpkins, have your children line them up by size.
(Image source)
Measure the pumpkins…
Track what you find out about the weight and size of the pumpkins. (get the printable here)
* Before carving, Read the book, how many seeds are in the pumpkin and make a guess.
Then count them together (you may want to use a smaller pumpkin for this).
* Little Pumpkins are perfect to have kids make a prediction whether they will sink or float.
Have them predict, and then try it out and see what happens!
* Roast the pumpkin seeds for a delicious treat. I love using Worcestershire sauce, salt, and a little butter on mine and roasting at 250 for 2 hours.
(image source & recipe)
* Talk about shapes with your child as you determine what the face will look like. Toddlers love this!
You can ask them if they want circle or triangle eyes and so on.
* Fantastic Fun and Learning shares a great idea to use pumpkin seeds to learn the alphabet.
(Image Source)
* The inside of a pumpkin is a perfect sensory experience, let your kids help you scoop it out and talk about what it feels like.
* Explain how a pumpkin grows. There are a lot of great pumpkin life cycle printables available. This book, Pumpkin Jack, is another great way to teach the life cycle of a pumpkin. Our kids LOVE this!
* Instead of carving the pumpkin, try painting the pumpkin!
A little fall decoration is filled with endless possibilities for learning.
Thank you for reading & sharing these ideas!
Enjoy and have fun together!
Meet Keri from Living in the Season:
As a mom of 3 little ones, I have slowly come to realize that everything has its season. The endless nights of a crying infant, potty training your toddler, tantrums, hugs and kisses… they are all small moments in time. Time that moves on ever so fast. As time flies by, we have to take hold of these moments- even the insane screaming ones- and remember it is just for a season. So here I am, sharing my moments of this season along with some of my passions: Activities with Kids, DIY Projects, and more!