Nothing says fall quite like a pumpkin. The popular orange gourd is great as decor, dessert, and jack o’lanterns. But how can you bring Halloween’s favorite squash into the classroom? There are pumpkin patch field trips, Halloween-themed bulletin boards and classroom decorations, and more.
However, as a teacher, you can use pumpkins for fun and for teaching art, STEM, and ELA. To get your students in the fall and Halloween spirit, here are 12 great ideas and resources to get you started.
2 Pumpkin Halloween Art Projects for Elementary School
These Halloween crafts are pumpkin perfect to use in your classroom during autumn. Once completed, you can use these art projects as decorations or a bulletin board installation. Or, send them home with students so they can continue the pumpkin fun at home.
Yayoi Kusama • Dot Pumpkin Art Lesson • Infinity Nets • Roll & Draw • Timeline by Expressive Monkey-The Art Teacher’s Little Helper
Grades: 2-5
Clip Art~ Pumpkin Spinners for Fall and Halloween by Cara’s Creative Playground
Not Grade Specific
4 Halloween ELA Activities about Pumpkins for Elementary
This is Halloween, so it’s time to grab a pumpkin book for a read aloud! Find new ways to get your class ready for a spooky Halloween with these ELA lessons. From writing prompts to reading comprehension exercises, these fun pumpkin activities for elementary students are sure to delight your class.
Preschool Pumpkin Activities by Planning Playtime
Grades: PreK-K
Read It Up! Spookley The Square Pumpkin by Kindergarten Smorgasboard
Grades: PreK-1
Using Context Clues: Pumpkins by Hello Fifth
Grades: 3-6
Free
All About Pumpkins Literacy Activities: Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, Poetry by Loving Language Arts
Grades: 5-9
Free
6 Pumpkin-Themed, Halloween STEM Activities for Elementary Students
Halloween learning can be more than fun. It can also be rigorous! Bring some pumpkin spice into your math lessons for some extra spookiness. Devote a science experiment or unit to specifically studying pumpkins. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even teach engineering principles to your students by having them design catapults and towers. It will be a trick and a treat your students won’t forget.
Free Halloween Math Activity Roll a Jack o Lantern by CreativeCOTA LLC
Grades: K-1
Free
Pumpkin Life Cycle PowerPoint with Google™ Slides Version FREE by Jewel’s School Gems
Grades: K-3
Free
Halloween STEM Challenges & Activities (October) Pumpkin Catapult, Candy Towers by Brooke Brown – Teach Outside the Box
Grades: K-5
Pumpkin Life Cycle Unit by forkin4th
Grades: 1-4
4th Grade Place Value & Rounding Digital Escape Room Fall/Pumpkin Themed by The Great Classroom Escape
Grades: 3-5
Experimenting w/ PUMPKINS! A Science Unit Exploring the Pumpkin by Mr Mault’s Marketplace
Grades: 3-6
While you might not be able to do all the fun Halloween activities with your elementary students, like trick or treating or eating candy corn, there’s still plenty of spooktacular ways to engage your students. Check out more pumpkin activities for elementary students on TPT.
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