Make a Solar System Out of Pumpkins

Now that Halloween is over you might be inclined to toss out your pumpkins. But pumpkins are a valid decoration all the way through Thanksgiving, and there are still learning activities you can do with pumpkins (even beyond the classic rotting experiment, which is a great thing to do with your carved pumpkins).

Teach Beside Me shares the idea of using a collection of pumpkins of different sizes to make your own model of the solar system.

This is a great one to do if you have space outside like a driveway or sidewalk where you can draw the orbits for the different planets. If you have a lot of space and want to get fancy you can calculate the relative distance between the planets and the sun and actually measure out a scale model of at least the inner planets (the distances get pretty huge pretty fast). I found a model using a 6-inch sphere for the sun and a building on the Tennessee Tech campus to measure the distances, or you can use the calculator at the Exploratorium to make a model based on the size of your sun. (Of course if you’re just doing it for fun you can alter these distances, for example doing 5.8 inches between the sun and Mercury instead of 5.8 meters as on the Tennessee model.)

Kids can paint and decorate the pumpkins to look more like the planets, and you can use larger pumpkins for larger planets and smaller ones for smaller planets, even if they don’t perfectly fit the model. You can use this time to talk about the characteristics of different planets, and how in your day Pluto was a planet. Draw in the asteroid belt, add the moon, or whatever else you like to make your model.

Check out all the details at Teach Beside Me, and if you’re looking for more pumpkin-themed STEM activities, check out the post here.

[Photo: Teach Beside Me]

20 STEAM Educational Gift Ideas For Kids

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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