Pumpkin Day!

This will be my third year having Pumpkin Day for my kiddos! I learned how to get it started from a friend that took me under her wing during my first year of teaching. It feels like it was so long ago but only three years have passed! Anyways, each year I have tried to tweak this fun day and make it even more fun for the students.

This is my first year at my new school and away from my previous team mates. I have to admit that I've taken advantage of having a partner-in-crime to plan everything with! Having to plan the entire day's activities has been a much more detailed task than I thought. My new grade level is excited about the activities but I want to make sure that they have everything they need so that their day goes off without a hitch!

The first task of Pumpkin Day is to have the students bring in their own pumpkins. Our rule of thumb is that they are to be able to carry it by themselves both to and from school. This tends to help with getting humongous pumpkins turned in to the front office that I have to go and take care of! Keep in mind that I'm almost 7 months pregnant and have been threatened  told by my doctor that if I don't take it easy they will put me on bed rest! So yet another reason for reasonably sized pumpkins!

The excitement starts among the students the minute the first pumpkin is carried through the door. I know that they are eager to get things started so I have a count down for them going on our board. This year was also convenient because it will be on Halloween so they are extra excited to get things started.

The second task of Pumpkin Day is to reach out to parents. We will have 8 different activities for the students to complete and will therefore need more adults. I like to get parents to come in and help out so that I can have the fun job of going around the room to observe and take pictures. I am thankful for all parents who are willing to step in and get their hands dirty!



While preparing for the day I make the students a book that they will take with them throughout their centers. This is so that I can prove that we are working on the standards while getting covered in pumpkin juices and seeds. Of course I try to make the book as cute as possible so it takes a little while! The first draft of the book came from my previous co-worker. I tweaked her version to make it work in my classroom. There were some activities that I had to take out because I did not have the same resources and then there are others that I was able to add because my time will not be as restricted this year.



The students got a kick out of each station. They had so much fun that it wasn't until later that they realized they were doing MATH! If I had to guess, I would say that "sink or float" was their favorite activity, they were most surprised with the amount of pumpkin seeds that were in the smallest pumpkins, and they were WAY too high on their estimation of circumference of their pumpkins. There were a lot of laughs and fun learning moments on this day and I know that I will continue to do this activity for years to come!



I'm uploading examples of the materials that we used for this year's Pumpkin Day. I'll post an updated book and materials for next year on my TPT store so don't forget to follow me here and on TPT so you can grab everything you'll need!

**I keep trying to add pictures to this post but blogger isn't being my friend at the moment! I will try and edit it again later and hopefully you can see the fun activities we did!