How to Use Pumpkins in the Classroom

This is the PERFECT time to bring the outdoors into the classroom! Many teachers take their students on outdoor scavenger hunts, integrate the changing colors of the leaves into art activities, and read fall-themed stories, but have you ever thought of bringing pumpkins into the classroom?


I'll be the first to admit that I was a little leery the first year I tried this with primary students. Part of me thought that I was setting myself up for disaster, but when I saw the incredible learning opportunities attached to bringing pumpkins into the classroom, I was sold!

There are countless books available for reading about pumpkins! From a funny story about a runaway pumpkin to a procedural recipe for making pumpkin pie, books are the perfect place to begin a pumpkin unit. You can read fiction or non-fiction, depending on your purpose, and the mentor texts you choose can be the perfect inspiration for encouraging your students' own writing! Here are a few of my personal favorites. Click each image for more information!

During math class, the possibilities are as large as your imagination! In fact, the best focus for pumpkins in the math classroom IS measurement! For the past two years, I've brought pumpkins into my classroom and had my students engaged in a wide variety of measurement activities.

We begin with some simple observations:


Then progress through a variety of estimation and measurement activities throughout the day:

And then, we DIG IN!!

I always emphasize the importance of estimating what our measurements could be as we complete each activity, and once the seeds are separated from the rest of the pumpkin guts, we group them into tens for easier skip counting. You may never see your students as engaged as you will when they're elbow-deep in pumpkin slime!