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Home / Early Learning / Math / Pumpkin STEM Challenge Your Preschoolers Will Love

Pumpkin STEM Challenge Your Preschoolers Will Love

Shared by Mary Catherine 12 Comments

This pumpkin STEM challenge is an incredibly engaging way to explore math and engineering concepts with your students. You’ll definitely want to add it to your list of preschool pumpkin activities to try this fall.

collage of pumpkin math activities with text that reads preschool pumpkin STEM challenge

Related: The Best Math Activities for Preschoolers

Table of Contents

  • Preschool Pumpkin STEM Invitation
    • Pumpkin STEM Goals
    • Materials Needed for the Pumpkin Math and Engineering Activity
    • Integrate the Technology into the Pumpkin STEM activity
  • Preschool Pumpkin Lesson Plans
  • More Fall and Pumpkin STEM Activities

Preschool Pumpkin STEM Invitation

This pumpkin STEM activity might not look like much, but it is an amazing way to explore so many early learning concepts.

bowl of candy pumpkins, yellow play dough, and magnetic numbers on a tray

Plus, it’s just plain fun and it keeps the kids engaged from start to finish. In fact, my students even took it a step further (but more on that later).

Pumpkin STEM Goals

Preschoolers will be able to use this invitation to explore science, technology, engineering, and math concepts in age appropriate ways.

Here are some of the concepts it covers:

  • Counting
  • Number identification
  • One-to-one correspondence
  • Planning and building structures with unusual materials
  • Using technology in a simple project

Observing and interacting with your students during this pumpkin math project will be very eye-opening!

You’ll be able to observe what each child understands about each of the above topics. You might even be a little surprised by some of your students’ awesome observations.

child building with yellow play dough and pumpkin candy during a pumpkin math and engineering challenge

Related: Engineering Activities for Kids

Materials Needed for the Pumpkin Math and Engineering Activity

You don’t need very much to get this pumpkin STEM activity started (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

Old, stale pumpkin candy

Play dough

Magnetic numbers

Cell phone or camera

magnetic number 8 and eight candy pumpkins built with play dough

Related: Pumpkin Geoboard

Pumpkin Math and Engineering Directions

Place the STEM challenge materials out on a tray, or just directly out on one of your tables.

Have the children come over individually or in small groups, depending on your preference and the children’s needs.

Explain to your students that you have a pumpkin challenge for them! Can they count and make different structures using pumpkin candies leftover from last Halloween?

My students could hardly wait to delve into the pumpkin STEM fun.

If your pumpkin candies aren’t as stale as ours were, you can try using flat toothpicks. This will add even more of a fine motor workout to the challenge.

Seeing as our pumpkins were super stale, we weren’t successful using toothpicks. So we moved onto using play dough as the “glue” to hold these STEM structures together.

magnetic number 7 with seven pumpkin candies held together by yellow play dough

Related: Pumpkin Sorting Activity

To being, have each of your students choose a magnetic number, Talk with them about the number they chose.

Next, the children can count out the appropriate number of pumpkin candies, based upon their magnetic numbers.

Then let the children create their pumpkin structures!

I have to tell you, my students seriously enjoyed this pumpkin STEM activity! They planned and build, and then planned some more and built some more.

Their structures were random conglomerations and castles and pumpkin patches and “I don’t know what it is right now.”

Using my phone to record her pumpkin math and engineering creation - such a fun fall S.T.E.M. activity for preschoolers

Related: Pumpkin Sensory Bin

Integrate the Technology into the Pumpkin STEM activity

Once the pumpkin structures are done, work with the children to take pictures of their STEM creations.

I allowed the children to use my cell phone to take pictures, and I also took a few photos.

You could also consider a school camera. Whatever you’re most comfortable with!

If your students are as interested in this pumpkin STEM challenge as mine were, I highly encourage you to take it a step further. We turned the photos into a pumpkin counting book, and it lived in our class reading center for months.

Have you tried a pumpkin STEM challenge like this one? If so, how did you set it up?

I found it so interesting to see who liked the different aspects of this activity. Some of the children were super into counting, others loooooved building, and a third group just wanted to take photos!

Preschool Pumpkin Lesson Plans

Save time and get right to the playful learning with printable lesson plan sets from Preschool Teacher 101.

Each set includes over 30 learning activities related to the theme, book suggestions, center activities, whole group and small group lessons, and related printables.

Get the pumpkin lessons plans here.

Pumpkin Preschool Lesson Plans

More Fall and Pumpkin STEM Activities

Here are more fall activities for preschoolers that revolve around science, technology, engineering, and math.

Witch’s Brew Sensory Play from Still Playing School

Fall Playdough Engineering Challenge from Capri + 3

Five Little Pumpkins Activity from Play, Teach, Repeat

Playdough Parts of an Acorn from No Stress Homeschooling

Fungus Investigation from Rainy Day Mum

The Itsy Bitsy Rhyming Spider from Growing Book by Book

Tessellating Shapes from The Preschool Toolbox

Leaf Sculptures from The Educators’ Spin On It

pumpkin activity collage with text that reads pumpkin stem challenge for preschool

Filed Under: Math, Science Tagged With: #TeachECE, Fall, Halloween, Pumpkins

Previous article:
« Jack and the Beanstalk Activity | Pop-Up Tree
Next article:
Pumpkin Counting Book made by Preschoolers »

Comments

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  1. The Preschool Toolbox says

    September 23, 2015 at 6:19 am

    I love this pumpkin and playdough construction! I’ll bet your kids had a blast taking photos with your phone, too! Great way to challenge little engineers!

    Reply
  2. Amanda says

    September 23, 2015 at 7:12 am

    I want to EAT those pumpkins. LOL! Wonder if there is a way to build with something edible… marshmallow fluff? That would be a gooey building number challenge!!!

    Reply
  3. Cerys says

    September 23, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Thus looks so much fun – love the pumpkins they look fantastic and the playdough tower is fantastic.

    Reply
  4. Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says

    September 23, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    LOVE it! You come up with some of the most fun educational ideas!

    Reply
  5. Clarissa says

    September 24, 2015 at 12:30 am

    We love all things play dough! Just when I thought we’ve combined every possible with with play dough, I see this! Great idea!

    Reply
  6. Natasha says

    September 26, 2015 at 1:54 am

    This looks like so much fun and I can see one of my girls tasting just to make sure I’m not tricking them.

    Reply
  7. Alecia says

    September 27, 2015 at 9:06 pm

    Pumpkin candy is on sale here and we have left over playdough. Thanks for a great idea!

    Reply
  8. Theresa says

    September 30, 2015 at 9:58 am

    love all of the imaginative combinations that are possible with this challenge! So fun.

    Reply
  9. greatKteacher says

    September 11, 2016 at 11:19 am

    I know some of these comments are old but maybe you could make eatable play dough to use with the pumpkins and build the towers and then the kids could eat it when they are done :).

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      September 15, 2016 at 3:26 pm

      Oh what a great suggestion! 🙂

      Reply
  10. Christina says

    September 15, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    This is such a cute, hands-on activity for preschoolers.
    I love how you incorporated the magnetic numbers into it. What a fun way to work on one-to-one correspondence and counting skills as well as number identification.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      October 22, 2020 at 9:25 am

      Thanks so much, Christina! Yes, there were so many early learning skills packed into this STEM activity.

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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