Exploring the life cycle of a pumpkin

How you can make the pumpkin life cycle a hands-on-learning experience

Use Literacy to Learn about the Pumpkin Life Cycle

We spent several days taking a closer look at pumpkins.  One of the stories we read to the children was the book titled, “Apples and Pumpkins” by Anne Rockwell…

This book took us on an enlightening journey through both an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch…

Use a Hands-on Approach

To introduce the children to the life cycle of a pumpkin, Mrs. Courtney introduced the stages of growth of a pumpkin to the children using a real pumpkin seed, seedling, vine, flower, green pumpkin and pumpkin she brought from home…

Share Personal Experiences

The different stages of the pumpkin sparked lots of conversation with our students and invited the children to tell their own stories of their experiences visiting a pumpkin patch or growing pumpkins at their own homes…

Then the children passed the different parts of the pumpkin plant around the circle…

Embrace New Discoveries

As the children passed around the fully grown pumpkin, they discovered that it was very heavy…

Expand Learning with Pumpkin Science

We followed up our discussion on the life cycle of a pumpkin plant by planting our own pumpkin seeds in a plastic bag…

The children dipped a cotton ball in water then squeezed the water out so the cotton ball would be wet but not dripping wet…

Explore the Inside of the Pumpkin

Then the children placed the cotton ball in a baggy and picked a seed out of the pumpkin to place inside their baggie too…

Make Predictions

Once the seed and damp cotton ball was in the baggie, the baggie was sealed and taped up in our window to see what will happen next…

Observe Changes Over Time

We don’t know if our seed will grow or not but as we observe the seeds over the next few weeks, our discussion on pumpkins will continue to come up and create additional opportunities to ask and answer questions about the growth of a pumpkin…

Available on Amazon

Links to grow on

Don’t have a real pumpkin you can explore?  Then check out these Life Cycle Cards (pdf) from Montessori For Everyone!

Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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