The Gentle Path: Theme Week: Pumpkins

This post is a bit behind, but I am still playing catch-up and unpacking around here. Our last theme week in October was PUMPKINS! I used this to academically tie in to our Halloween decorating fun, but honestly many of these activities could just as easily be done in September or November as part of a fall unit.

Academically, here's what we were up to with our pumpkin theme...

Make a Word and Write the "Room"

These great word work printables are both from A Year of Many First's Falling For Autumn pack. This was not a freebie but since we've used almost every page, it was a great deal! There are a lot of the same "type" of activities though (i.e. 4 or 5 "write the rooms") so we've tried to find ways to mix it up a bit. As you see in the pictures, I pulled Halloween themed chipboard letters for Munchkin to use in "Make a Word." For "Write the Room," our favorite modifier is simply to change locations. We pop the printable on a clipboard and head out. With the "PUMPKIN" page, Munchkin asked to go outside so that he could use his very own pumpkin in our garden as his first "P" word.

Fact Family Work

As part of my quest to increase addition fluency, we have been doing a lot of fact family work. Munchkin's understanding of number relationships is flawless, but he enjoys doing something other than drill sheets (and so do I!) The first of these activities is also from the Falling for Autumn pack and asked Munchkin to match up addition sentences with the same sum (most also shared the same family of numbers).

The next activity, from A Day in First Grade, is part of a FREE pumpkin week pack! This one had Munchkin brainstorming all the possible number sentences from a set of numbers. What I love about this activity is that there are waaaay more cards than spots on the recording sheet. It is also not specifically Halloween themed, so we will be repeating the activity several times with different (and increasingly higher) numbers in our fact families. (Hint: laminate the recording sheet and no copies are necessary!)

Pumpkin Stories

Just a few of the pumpkin books we have been reading. My favorite for Munchkin (first grade) was The Pumpkin Book. It went into the most details about the life cycle and even included information about the history of Halloween! For younger kiddos I like It's Pumpkin Time. The text is short and simple but the book still covers a lot of great info about the life cycle of a jack o lantern! Apples and Pumpkins was another favorite this year since, for the first time, my kids could relate to the story of going to a farm to pick both fall favorites.

Life Cycle Work

We were lucky enough this year to have our very own pumpkins to observe in our garden. It was really neat for the kids to watch flowers turn into green balls, turn into pumpkins. It was even more fun to pick our own pumpkins for Halloween art fun!

In addition to observing the real thing, Munchkin also made a fun model of the life cycle using A to Z teacher Stuff's printable here. Somehow my picture of this is missing, so I will include their stock photo (though ours was cuter! :-)):

Pumpkin Art!

The two little pumpkins picked from our garden were too small to carve so the boys had fun painting them instead:

Surprisingly, Monkey spent twice as long on his pumpkin as his big brother. Looks like it's time to pull out the paints more often for this one!!!

Jack o Lantern carving was another story entirely... Neither of the boys want anything to do with the "goop" inside the pumpkin... So Mommy does most of the work.

This year, though, Munchkin did a great job of helping to trace out the patterns he chose for his and his brother's pumpkins (Angry Bird and Silly Face respectively).

Sensory Play

Yummm... Pumpkin Spice Play Dough!!! We made these cute tins as Halloween presents for Munchkin's school friends. The dough is basic homemade play dough dyed orange... but into the dry mix goes 2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice... The result is the yummiest smelling play dough ever. Seriously. Munchkin is not always big on sensory play, but he has pulled out his "Pumpkin Spice Dough" over and over again usually commenting "I LOVE Pumpkin Spice!"

More Pumpkin Fun

I had also planned on completing this super-cute pumpkin day investigation activity (from A Day in First Grade's FREE pumpkin week pack), but Munchkin and his class at "school" did a similar activity so he was not interested in repeating it at home.

The pack has wonderful instruction signs for each station to weigh, measure, and count parts of a pumpkin, though and would be super cute especially in a classroom setting. She also has an adorable mini-book available (also FREE) for kids to complete about their pumpkin. Next year, both of these are on my pumpkin week agenda!

Other Pumpkin Pinterest Finds

(as seen on my October Pinterest Board)

123 Homeschool 4 Me's Roundup of Pumpkin Crafts and Kids Activities

Young and Lively Kindergarten's Ten Frame Roll, Color, and Cover Pumpkins

Frugal Homeschool Family's Elementary Pumpkin Unit Study

Fun in First's Pumpkin Post and Freebies

KC Edventures' Free Pumpkin Carving Stencils

A Cupcake For the Teacher's Pumpkin Math Puzzles

Fun-a-day's Geo Pumpkin (I fully intend to try this one once our little pumpkins have enjoyed their front porch showcase for a while!)

Two Teaching Mommies' Pumpkin Pack

NAMC's Montessori Pumpkin Life Cycle Cards

The Reading Mama's Pre-K Pumpkin Pack