Pumpkin STEM Activities for Kids

September 19, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Last month I shared some fun apple STEM activities, but of course you can do a lot of the same things with our other favorite fall produce: the pumpkin. Here are some fun pumpkin STEM ideas for use in the classroom or at home. (Also check out my pumpkin printables post; it has some ideas for learning about parts of the pumpkin, measuring pumpkins and more.)

Lots of classic STEM activities can be performed with pumpkins, such as pumpkin catapults, using the pumpkin as the base (this one is from Preschool Powol Packets); pumpkin volcanoes (get this one from Natural Beach Living, food coloring optional but fun!); and sink or float experiments that turn into a full sensory experience, like this pumpkin boat project from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.

Check this post from Our Family Code for more projects involving exploding pumpkins (including doing the classic Mentos and Coke explosion in a pumpkin). And of course you can use that pumpkin catapult to launch pumpkin candies if you want. Get details on that idea from Team Cartwright. (Theirs just uses craft sticks but you could use the pumpkin version for this purpose as well.)

Have you ever thought of growing pumpkins in a pumpkin? I have to say I hadn’t but you can learn all about how to do it at home or in the classroom at Life with Moore Babies. This is a different take on the traditional pumpkin decay experiment with Pumpkin Jack (get the details from Little Bins for Little Hands).

Or you can take traditional STEM activities and give them a pumpkin themed twist even if you’re not using actual pumpkins. Like making pumpkin poppers with orange cups and balloons (get all the details from Gift of Curiosity) or pumpkin lava lamps, which you can find on Science Sparks.

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Witch Themed Math Activities

It’s the time of the year to start bringing a little Halloween fun into every lesson plan you can, so here are some ideas for witch themed math activities your kids are sure to love.

Practice symmetry skills with this witch hat counting game from Friends Art Lab. Kids can stick stickers of the same type on each side of the hat, then count how many total, how many of each type, etc. And you end up with a cute piece of art to boot.

Frugal Mom Eh has a number of witch themed worksheets including a connect the dots, label the witch and Halloween themed scattergories. But the one that caught my eye was the witch’s leg coloring page, which is a color by the answer to the math problem.

Nurtured Neurons has a cute witch counting came where you match the witch to the number of bubbles coming out of her cauldron. This one requires membership in their community but you might be able to get a free preview.

The witches brew on a ten frame activity from Miniature Masterminds is a cute one to work on one to one correspondence. Use little erasers or buttons if you want to reuse the cards, or add stickers to match the number on the card, which adds a fine motor skill component.

The Teacher Bag has a cute Halloween counting game kids can use to make their own potion in a little cauldron. You could make your own version with all the little Halloween themed bits you have handy, and either make a spinner like theirs or just write out some recipes and have kids go through the bigger cauldron to find all the ingredients they need. Then count them up! This post from Pocket of Preschool has a similar idea you can use with their printable or make your own with whatever items you have on hand.

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