Special Needs for SPECIAL KIDS

The Best (Magic) Pumpkin Activity I Ever Did

I love fall. I love pumpkins. I feel like they are everywhere this time of year. In my early teaching years, I was so lucky to work with the most amazing team of special ed teachers. We worked together, and the teachers, as well as the students, truly benefited from this cooperative learning environment. One of our favorite things to do was to put together virtual field trips. Due to budget constraints, we could only actually go on two field trips a year. But, that did not stop us. We even “went” to South Africa one year!! But, I want to share with you the best part of our virtual field trip to a pumpkin patch. The kids loved it, it was truly magical, and I have never forgotten it.

There were 4 teachers involved in the field trip, and each classroom became a stop on our trip. Here is where we “went” and learned:

Life Cycle of a pumpkin
Pumpkin painting
Carving a pumpkin
The Magic pumpkin patch

After we were done, we all met in the cafeteria to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown with popcorn and Halloween candy.

Let me share with you the Magic pumpkin patch activity in time for you to try it this fall.

Here are the supplies you will need:

1 paint stick per student
bag of pumpkin seeds
trowel
rubber mallet (for teacher to hammer in paint sticks)
1 small pumpkin per student

Explain to the kids that you have some very special and magic pumpkin seeds that you want to plant outside. Before heading outside, have students write their name on a paint stick.

Then head outside to plant the magic seeds. Let students pick out what they think will be the perfect spot to plant their seed. Each student digs a little hole and plants their seeds.

Then, we continued on with our field trip, ending in the cafeteria. After watching the movie, we told the kids we should go check on our magic seeds, and see if anything had happened. (Of course while they were all watching the movie, one of us snuck out and placed the magic pumpkins in our pumpkin patch.)

Here is what they saw:

It was really surprising how excited all the kids were to see if their pumpkin had grown. I, truly, have never forgotten it, and am so thankful that I got to experience this field trip with my students with some of the best teachers I have ever know.

So, in an effort to continue to save you time and money as super busy special education teachers, I wanted to give you a chance to download my FREE Pumpkin Counting Book. It was a very popular choice this time of year, and, yes, I can still recite if from memory.

I also have an awesome unit on pumpkins that is filled with activities for the fall. CLICK HERE to check it out

Finally, I have a literacy unit on The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll. It was definitively a favorite in my class, and I am sure your kiddos will love it too!! CLICK HERE to check it out.