Have children create a pumpkin craft while honing their fine motor skills. Provide them with pieces of orange construction paper and instruct them to tear the paper into small pieces. Have them glue the torn pieces of paper onto the surface of a paper plate, creating a replica of a pumpkin. Cut a small rectangle from brown construction paper and glue it to the top of the pumpkin to serve as a stem. To further embellish the craft, children can use black markers to draw the face of a jack-o'-lantern on top of their torn-paper pumpkins.
For a science and discovery activity, allow children to explore the inside of pumpkins. Cut open a hole in the top of a pumpkin and invite children to look inside. Ask them to describe what they see and draw pictures to illustrate the inside of the pumpkin. Encourage them to place their hands inside the pumpkin. Have them remove some of the guts and ask them to describe what they feel as they are doing so. Present them with magnifying glasses to allow them to get a closer look of the seeds and guts of the pumpkins. Again, ask them to describe what they see and to draw a picture to illustrate the material.
Pumpkins also can be used to help promote one-to-one correspondence in preschool children. On a sheet of paper, draw several pumpkins. Inside each pumpkin, write a number and draw dots to correspond with each number. Provide children with pumpkin seeds and instruct them to glue the correct number of seeds inside each pumpkin, using the dots drawn in the shapes as a guideline.
Play a game of musical pumpkin with your students. Assemble students in a circle on the floor and give one child a pumpkin. Play music and upon hearing the music play, children pass the pumpkin to the person sitting on their right. Randomly stop the music and the child who is holding the pumpkin steps out of the circle. Continue playing until there is only one child remaining. Award each child a prize at the end of the game to award good sportsmanship.