Pumpkin Life Cycle Activity {Printable}

Print this pumpkin life cycle activity! It’s the perfect thing to go with a book about how pumpkins grow for an easy science lesson for young kids.

I put this printable activity together for our Ranch School. This month, I started offering Ranch School at our hobby farm! It’s a class for 4 – 6 year olds, and we’re having SO much fun.

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October is the perfect time for kids to learn that pumpkins grow from seeds into a vine which then produces pumpkins.

I ordered two books from Amazon that are perfect for this science lesson.

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons – I decided to read this one to the class. This book is so well done, as are all of Gail Gibbons’ science books. I love how this book explains how seeds germinate and the fact that it introduces the concept of plant varieties.

Even though the cover of the this book features Jack O’Lanterns, Halloween is only mentioned on the last two pages. I just skipped those pages when I read it to my class since some of the families don’t celebrate Halloween (including us).

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer is also fabulous. I didn’t have time to read both, and I chose The Pumpkin Book for our class time. However, I like the fact that From Seed to Pumpkin offers more explanation about how plants make their own food and the fact that sugar is stored in fruits like pumpkins. If I had more time with these kids, I would have read both books!

While reading the The Pumpkin Book, we stopped at different points to discuss. I had purchased a few different varieties of pumpkins so that we could compare them, and this was so worth it! The kids really enjoyed touching and examining each pumpkin.

After we read The Pumpkin Book, we put the steps of pumpkin development in order.

You can print this activity at the bottom of the post!

Have the kids color the steps of pumpkin development and then cut them out.

Then glue them down in the correct order. We used glue sticks – so easy for kids to handle.

The kids also planted pumpkin seeds to take home with them! We painted flower pots, and then when they were dry, the kids scooped in some dirt and planted the seeds.

I made it clear that they will NOT be harvesting pumpkins haha! There’s not time before the first frost. However, I do think they’ll be able to observe the seed leaves and then the vine leaves. If they transplant them to an outdoor garden, they may even be able to see the flowers develop.