Pumpkin Exploration Day: Engaging Ideas for Your Learners

Pumpkin Exploration Day: Engaging Ideas for Your Learners

Pumpkin exploration, pumpkin investigation, or just pumpkin day! Whatever you call it, your students will love these fun, hands on science, reading, writing, and character education activities!

Watch my Facebook Live video about this topic here.

Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

All of the free printables I’m going to share in this post are available in our Facebook group files here.

Pumpkin Exploration: Let them get messy!

Adjective Pumpkin Activities: Pumpkin exploration (All About my Pumpkin) is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

This post contains affiliate links.

First, let your students explore the outside of the pumpkin. This is a great writing activity, and also a great chance to talk about adjectives!

Pumpkin exploration- messy pumpkin fun- is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

One of the best parts of investigating pumpkins is that it gives students an opportunity to see nature up close and personal! Next, allow your students to check out the inside of the pumpkin. You can have them scoop out the pumpkin guts with their hands or a spoon.

Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

This works well in pairs or small groups, so don’t feel like you need a whole pumpkin for each student.

Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

 Here’s another change for students to do some describing! Next, let your students use their senses to describe their pumpkin! You can give them a magnifying glass to examine the guts up close and personal. (Grab this free recording sheet in our Facebook group.)

Pumpkin Math!

Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

Pumpkin math is such a great opportunity to do some estimating and measuring! Again, this could be completed in pairs or small groups, or you could work together as a class.

Pumpkin-Cano: Pumpkin Volcano Fun!

Pumpkin exploration- Pumpkin STEM volcano experiment- is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

The Pumpkin-Cano is ALWAYS a hit with students. This is a little twist on the classic volcano.

Pumpkin exploration- Pumpkin STEM volcano experiment- is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

Once the guts have been removed from the pumpkin, mix orange gelatin powder and vinegar and pour it inside of your pumpkin. (How much will depend on the size of your pumpkin, but the more gelatin, the more orange the color.)

(Watch this experiment in this time lapse video here.)

Pumpkin exploration- Pumpkin STEM volcano experiment- is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

Next, students add baking soda and watch the chemical reaction!

Pumpkin exploration- Pumpkin STEM volcano experiment- is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

Just make sure to place the pumpkin on a plate or bowl big enough to contain the eruption (clearly we didn’t).

Grab the free printables for all of the above activities in our Facebook group here.

The Pumpkin Book & Student Mini Book

Pumpkin book by Gail Gibbons activities- Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

If your students aren’t already familiar with how pumpkins grow, I highly recommend starting your pumpkin day by reading Gail Gibbons’ The Pumpkin Book. It’s incredibly detailed, and gives students a nice basis of knowledge when it comes to all things pumpkin! I also have a great student mini book companion that they can fill out as you read together.

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Pumpkin life cycle craft- Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

You can’t do a pumpkin investigation without talking about the pumpkin life cycle! My one page (that’s right, one page!) pumpkin life cycle craftivity is a great way for students to show what they know, and it is a perfect bulletin board!

Pumpkin life cycle craft- Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

Ask students to write about the pumpkin life cycle using the provided writing paper after they’ve completed their craftivity. There are 4  craftivity options, so you can easily differentiate.. They could also write about what they learned during their pumpkin exploration!

Spookley Pumpkin Glyph

Spookley the Pumpkin Glyph- Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!

If you’ve never read Spookley the Square Pumpkin, it is a must read. It’s a great character education story that students will love! It’s all about how being unique is a good thing! My pumpkin glyph activity is a fun option to go along with this story.

Pumpkin PERSONALIZED Reading Passages

Personalized pumpkin reading passages: Pumpkins are such a FUN Fall topic in October! Whether you can or can not celebrate Halloween in your classroom, these fun reading passages are sure to be a favorite!

What’s more fun than reading about pumpkins? When YOU get to star in the story! These Personalized Pumpkin Passages are bound to be a hit while allowing students to practice key comprehension skills. You’ll love the easy class set feature that allows you to type in your class list once and have the names autofill in all 5, original stories!

Pumpkin exploration day is always a hit no matter which activities you choose!

You can join my FREE Facebook Club for k-2 teachers here!

Find me on InstagramFacebookTwitter, and Pinterest!

Pumpkin exploration is such a fun, hands on, engaging activity for your classroom! Students will love investigating their pumpkins in October! Math, science, reading, and writing activities all in one fun, cross-curricular day!


Primary Paradise

I have always had a passion for teaching and sharing with others and look forward to sharing my ideas with you!