Image courtesy of Rich Bowen on Flickr.
Given it is the fall season and everything is either pumpkin scented or pumpkin flavored, it only makes sense that I give the people a pumpkin blog post. I found a great project idea from a site called Growing in for Pre K.
If you haven’t had enough pumpkin yet and are in need of a fall festivity to do with your preschooler, give a whack at this project.
Essentially the project teaches young kids about the pumpkin lifecycle by growing a pumpkin plant from the seeds inside a pumpkin.
It’s quite simple.
- Have your child help you remove some, but not all of the pumpkin guts from the pumpkin. Squeeze guts through fingers for emphasis (haha). Oh, and a helpful tip: bring your pumpkin indoors a few hours before you do the project so that the pumpkin guts can get to room temperature; it’s way more comfortable. Make sure there are plenty of seeds left inside!
- Add soil to the pumpkin.
- Pour some water in the pumpkin.
- Watch your pumpkin plant grow!
- When the plant gets too big, you can move it to a plot outside. Boom. Pumpkin patch.
If you are a teacher and want to make this a classroom activity with your preschoolers, this site also offers handouts about the life cycle of a pumpkin, which you can print out and give to your students. And if you really want to pumpkin spice it up, have your students measure their sprouting plants at the start of every school day, they will love tracking the progress of their plant!