Pumpkin Life Cycle Sequencing Activity – Printable and Lesson Plan

This printable has a full lesson plan for the book Pumpkin, Pumpkin and a printable sequencing page that can be used for learning about the pumpkin life cycle alone or along with the book.

The PDF has two pages. Page 1 has six cards for the stages seed, sprout, plant, flower, green pumpkin and orange pumpkin. Each card has the word on top, a picture on the bottom and a dashed fold line between them. Page 2 is a lesson plan for the book Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington, with science and language arts goals, a sentence-strip retelling activity and enrichment ideas like a pumpkin patch trip and sprouting seeds.

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Students can use this printable to create a model of the pumpkin cycle.  Here’s how:

  1. Color and cut out the life cycle stages from this printable.
  2. Make a jack-o-lantern for the last stage in the life cycle.  You can staple two paper plates together and decorate it like a jack-o-lantern.  Leave a section unstapled so the pieces can be stored inside the pumpkin.
  3. Attach a piece of yarn to the inside of the pumpkin with tape.
  4. Attach pictures to the yarn that represent each of the steps leading up to the jack-o-lantern.  The pictures are meant to be folded on the dashed line and glued to the yarn so that the picture is on one side and the word is on the other side.
  5. The “vine” can be stuffed inside the pumpkin and gradually pulled out as students retell the Pumpkin, Pumpkin story, or recite the steps of the pumpkin life cycle.   Be sure the pieces are in order so that it starts with the seed and ends with the jack-o-lantern:  Seed, sprout, plant, flower, green pumpkin, orange pumpkin, jack-o-lantern.
In the example pictured above, we used construction paper instead of paper plates.  We cut a pumpkin shape from 2 pieces of construction paper, then cut eyes and a nose from black construction paper.  My kindergartner wanted to draw the mouth instead of cutting paper for it.  She also added a stem cut from brown construction paper.  The orange pieces of the jack-o-lantern were stapled together with an opening on the side. When I’ve done this activity in the past, students colored the paper plates and and drew on the face.  You can also use orange paint.  I’ve also heard of orange plates being available around Halloween, so that might be an option, too, if you can find them in stores.
 
 

How are others using this printable?

I love seeing how others are using this to teach kids!  All of these links feature photos of the completed activity.

nopin preschoolalphabet preview

  • Pumpkin Fun in Room P-1

nopin fabulousinfirst preview

 

Ways to use it

  • Read the book first: Read Pumpkin, Pumpkin aloud, then have children name the stages they saw in the story.
  • Fold and quiz: Once the cards are folded, children can look at a picture, say the stage and flip it over to check the word.
  • Sprout seeds: Follow the lesson plan’s idea of putting pumpkin seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and recording the changes.
  • Retell with sentence strips: Use the lesson plan’s sentence frames so children can fill in each stage as they retell the story.
  • Check understanding: Mix up the folded cards and see whether children can put them in order from seed to orange pumpkin without help.
  • After a field trip: Use the cards to recall and order what children saw at a pumpkin patch.

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