15 Ways to Learn and Play with Real Pumpkins!

Do you carve every pumpkin you buy?

If you’re anything like me, you have a couple pumpkins set aside for carving, and a few that you keep intact for fall decorating. Those decorating pumpkins often just sit there until they are ready to be thrown out sometime after Halloween.

But I hate waste.

I felt like I HAD to do something with those decorative pumpkins! That’s when I deiced we would use the pumpkins for fun and educational activities!

Turns out there were lots of like-minded people out there using their pumpkins for all sorts of fun- I’ve compiled a list of 15 of my favorite activities that use real pumpkins below.

Activities That Use Real Pumpkins:

(note that some of these activities do require cutting the pumpkins open or poking holes in them. They obviously won’t go back to being decorative pumpkins after that 😉 )

1. Paint with Mini Pumpkins // Munchkins and Moms
2. Pumpkin Sink or Float Science // Munchkins and Moms
3. Sorting Parts of a Pumpkin // Munchkins and Moms
4. Pumpkin Hide and Seek // Munchkins and Moms
5. Hammering Golf Tees into Pumpkins // Happily Ever Moms
6. Give a Pumpkin a Bath! // Busy Toddler
7. Make a Pumpkin Geoboard // Fun-A-Day
8. Make Pumpkin Boats // Frugal Fun 4 Boys
9. Pumpkin and Rubberbands Fine Motor Activity // The Imagination Tree
10. Trace around Pumpkins for Simple Toddler Art // Lemon Lime Adventures
11. Play Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe // Toddler Approved
12. Go Pumpkin Bowling // Wunder-Mom
13. Five Little Pumpkins STEM Challenge // Little Bind for Little Hands
14. Do a Pumpkin Investigation // Life Over C’s
15. Make a Pumpkin Shape Sorter // To be a Kid Again

Do you and your kids have a favorite way to learn and play with pumpkin that didn’t make the list? Leave us a comment below!