One thing I love about homeschool preschool is all the excuses to cook and just get nice and messy. This pumpkin lesson for preschool was a great opportunity to get a little messy for our homeschool Halloween.
This is a multi-step process we went through. I saw a couple of different posts from some blogs I read, mainly Household Ways and Blessings Overflowing talking about homemade pumpkin puree, and pumpkin seeds, and it got me thinking of the wonderful lessons that can come from that.
Pumpkin lessons for preschool: language arts
We carved our pumpkins out, and worked on using descriptive words of what the inside felt like and what did the outside feel like. We all agreed it felt slimy, and the inside walls of the skeleton felt slimy.
Pumpkin lessons for preschool: math
We counted how many ribs it had. I’m planning on next year having them do a whole math unit about pumpkins, but that wasn’t for this year.
Then I quartered it so we could more easily get the stringies out and because that would fit in my pan best.
Pumpkin lessons for preschool: life skills
We cooked it for almost two hours to get it nice and soft, and learned about patience and why we cooked it the way we did.
Then we learned about how the pumpkin had changed after cooking it, now it felt soft and squishy.
And of course we cooked with it. We made this yummy pumpkin scone recipe I found here.
Actually, I’ve made that recipe twice. And both times I think they might have lasted an hour. Maybe………
And finally we roasted them. Which was not the wildly popular snack I was hoping for. Unfortunately I didn’t let them all dry correctly, so I didn’t get to try out the various different recipes I was going to for pumpkin seeds. Oh well.
But wait there’s more! Coming soon to a home near you, or more accurately, my home. I’ve been slowly transferring the pictures of the step by step process into a table (to maintain uniform page size), and I’m printing them off as we speak to have them tell me what happened in the pictures.
It’s going to be exciting! There will be untold mysteries of what they will decide to tell me is happening. Stay tuned for the update. Read all about our pumpkin writing assignment.
For more fall ideas check out my pinterest board:
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I like the idea of having the kiddos sequence themselves- neat!
Great idea!
You should save them so they can write sentences underneath the pictures. Written directions using time order words!
I love the idea of printing out the pictures like that for so many hidden stories to come from your children.
Great hands on learning Ticia 🙂
How much fun! You did a great job using it as a lesson.
Great lesson and I love that you are going to have them sequence the photos.
Anna was a lot more excited about roasting pumpkin seeds than about eating them too. I love the sequencing idea – looking forward to an update on that.