"P is for Pumpkin" Simple Lesson Plan and Activities

Today I am sharing a fun and simple lesson plan geared roughly towards preschool-2nd grade, but I had children ranging from 3-13 that participated in some capacity in the activities for today! (Who says teenagers don't have fun taking a little break from their schoolwork to play with play-doh?!?)

My sister has children that are 2 and 4 years old, and I have a 3 and 6 year old in my line-up, so we have been getting together a few times a month to enjoy a day of preschool-themed learning activities together. This last get together, my sister put together a fun and simple lesson plan on the theme of "P is for Pumpkin!." Here I'll share a few of the activities she prepared that would make a fun fall-themed day for anyone looking for some hands-on and tactile learning experiences. 

1) Books, of course! 

Today we read Ox-Cart Man, which is beautifully illustrated by Barbara Cooney and has autumnal notes throughout the story and illustrations. And although there are so many, here are a few of our other favorite pumpkin-themed books: 

• How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara

• Pumpkin Moonshine by Tasha Tudor

• The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

• The Pumpkin Runner by Marsha Diane Arnold

• The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams 

2) “P says Puh” basket grab. 

This was a perfect activity for our 3 and 4 year olds, and my 6-year old even found a way to join the fun. My sister put several different items in a basket, and about half of them started with the letter P (pants, pencil, pumpkin, etc) and half of them didn’t. The kids took turns taking an item out of the basket, and we helped them sound out the name of the item and decide if it started with “puh, puh, P” or not. Then we set them in different piles. For my 6 year old, we helped him work on sounding out the word and spelling it. The kids all enjoyed this alot!

3) Pumpkin Spice play-doh and Letter P playdoh mats. 

My sister made a batch of pumpkin spice play-doh, which smelled lovely. She printed off letter P play-doh mats, and the kids rolled out the play-doh to fit on the uppercase and lowercase P letters. I have a free letter P play-doh printable included in the link below! 

4) Anatomy of a pumpkin, and cutting a pumpkin open. 

I printed off several sheets from Treehouse Schoolhouse Nature Study: Autumn, including the pumpkin anatomy sheet. My sister used this sheet as a reference to explain the different parts of a pumpkin, and then my 9-year-old son was thrilled to cut the pumpkin open. We identified all the different parts, and the kids got to touch all of them as well. 

5) Play-doh pumpkin anatomy models. 

After we spent a little time exploring our dissected pumpkin, we pulled the play-doh back out and let the kids make models of the pumpkin based on the pumpkin anatomy. My sister found several loose parts to help represent the parts of a pumpkin: play-doh for the flesh, curled green pipe cleaners for the stem, actual pumpkin seeds for the seeds, and spiral pasta as the fibrous strands. All of my kids (ages 3, 6, 9, 11, and 13) and my 4-year-old nephew had fun making play-doh models with all of these parts. 

I hope you’ll try some of these ideas out with your little ones! To help facilitate your learning, I created a free printable that includes a beautiful anatomy of a pumpkin sheet, a second copy with blank lines for your older students to fill in the blanks, and a pumpkin play-doh mat for your kiddos to shape the letter ‘P.”