Pumpkin Alphabet Activities

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Your kids will love these hands-on pumpkin alphabet activities and beginning sound activities. Teach letter recognition and letter sounds with this fun resource.

Are you looking for some fun, hands-on literacy activities for your fall unit or Halloween lesson plans?  Your kids will love these pumpkin-themed alphabet and beginning sound activities.

Pumpkin literacy activities

Many Options Included

The printable resource includes many components so that you can customize the activity to meet the needs of your kids. Here is what it includes:

  • uppercase wagons
  • lowercase wagons
  • uppercase pumpkins
  • lowercase pumpkins
  • beginning sound pumpkins with labels
  • beginning sound pumpkins without labels
There are many options with your pumpkin alphabet activities.

But the coolest thing about this activity is that the pumpkins fit INSIDE the wagons.  I designed the wagon to be a pouch and the pumpkins fit perfectly inside.  This makes the hands-on activity even more engaging for your kids.

They even get a little fine motor practice as they place the matching pumpkins in each wagon.

Your pumpkins fit in the wagons with this pumpkin alphabet activity.

How to Assemble the Activity

You will have to do some assembly to make the wagon pouches.  But once you get them assembled, you will be excited by how cute they are AND you can use them again and again.

I realize that not everyone has time for assembly.  If you don’t have time try to find a parent volunteer to help you out.  If all else fails, you can take a shortcut and just cut out the front part of the wagon.  Instead of sticking pumpkins inside the wagon, your kids can just match wagons and pumpkins.  No worries….your kids will still enjoy the activity.

OK….now on to assembly directions. Print the components that you want to use. The wagons will print 2 per page.

You can print two wagons per page with your pumpkin alphabet activity.

Cut

Cut out the wagons on the outside line.  Don’t worry about cutting out around the wheels at this point.  We will get to that in a bit.

Cut out your wagons on this pumpkin alphabet activity.

Fold

Now, fold the wagon in half at the wheels.  There is a pink line there that you can use as a guide.  The back of the wagon will be slightly larger than the front (at the top).

Fold and cut your wagon with this pumpkin alphabet activity.

Cut Again

After you have folded the wagon, you can now cut it out around the wheels.  Try to leave a little bit of paper at the bottom of the wheels to hold the front and back together.  This will make laminating them just a bit easier.  If you cut it….no worries.  This will still work.

Pumpkin alphabet activity wagon.

Laminate

Now that you have folded and cut out the wagons, place them in a laminating pouch.  Do not un-fold the wagons.

Laminate your cut out wagons for your pumpkin alphabet activity.

After running the wagons through the laminator, cut them out.  Be sure to leave a border of laminate around the wagon….this border will hold your wagons together.

Your cute laminated wagons for your pumpkin alphabet activity.

Create a Pouch

Now, carefully take the edge of scissors or the blade of a utility knife and cut through the laminate at the top of the wagon.  Do not cut all the way through to the back.  Only cut the laminate.

TADA!  Look at what you made!  You created a wagon pouch and your kids are going to love it!

A wagon pouch for your pumpkin alphabet activity.

After laminating and cutting out the pumpkins, they will fit perfectly inside the wagon pouch.

Pumpkin alphabet activity.

Activity Ideas


Letter Matching

You can help kids learn to recognize letters by using the set for a letter matching activity.  Use the set of wagons and letter pumpkins of your choice.  Spread the pumpkins face up in the middle of the table and place the wagons in a pile. Kids can select a wagon, name the letter on the wagon, find the matching pumpkin, and place the pumpkin inside the wagon.  Encourage kids to make the letter sounds as they play.

Beginning Sound Matching

You can also use the set for a beginning sound matching activity.  There are two sets of beginning sound pumpkins included with the set.  The one with labels will help kids see and hear the sounds of the letters in the words.  As kids become better at understanding the concept of beginning sounds, you can switch the pumpkins that have the image only.

Beginning sound matching with your pumpkin alphabet activity.

Small-Group Games

The set can be used for some fun pumpkin-themed letter matching or beginning sound games.  Choose a set of letter pumpkins or beginning sound pumpkins.  Pass out an equal number of wagons to all of the children at the table. Spread the pumpkins face down in the middle of the table.

Kids can take turns selecting a pumpkin and determining the letter or word on the pumpkin. Then, all the children can determine which child has the wagon with the matching letter. The pumpkin is given to the child with the matching wagon. He or she places the pumpkin in the wagon and the next child takes a turn. If nobody has a wagon that matches the pumpkin that has been selected, the pumpkin card should be placed in a discard pile. The child who fills his or her wagons first is the winner.

Mix-it Up

Nobody says that you have to use one pumpkin at a time.  Kids can put more than one pumpkin in a wagon.  Have them find an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and word card for each wagon.

Letter Formation

Use the pumpkin cards with a salt tray to let kids practice writing letters.

Name Activity

Ask kids to find the letter in their names.

Letter Sorting

Sort the pumpkins by type of letters (letters with curves, letters with straight lines, tall letters, short letters, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, etc).

What Are Teachers Saying About This Resource?

Here is what teachers are saying about the pumpkin alphabet and beginning sound resource.

“This activity was a fun way of introducing beginning sounds and recognizing that letters make sounds. It was easy to use and create for the classroom.” -Heather T.

“I absolutely loved this activity and so did my students. Easy to cut and laminate and it worked perfectly in my alphabet center” -Emily B.

“Love that I am able to differentiate for multiple levels” – Cora N.

“This was a super cute activity to work on phonological skills. It was easy to differentiate for my students that were ready to work on letters sounds and for my students working on letters in name.”  -Felicia R.

Purchase the Pumpkin Literacy Activity Today

Are you ready to purchase the Pumpkin Alphabet and Beginning Sound Activity for your kids?  Click on the images below to check them out in my store.

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