pumpkin literacy centers – Mrs Mama Bird

Are you visiting the pumpkin patch with your kiddos this fall?? Here’s a fun way to help them practice beginning letter sounds while pretending they are “picking pumpkins” in a pumpkin patch. This activity is perfect for introducing phonological awareness in preschool or strengthening those skills in kindergarten.

I decided to set this letter sound match center up like a pumpkin patch. I used kinetic sand as the ground and spread it evenly in a deep plastic tray that I purchased at Michaels. Kinetic sand is one of my favorite sensory activity mediums because it isn’t sticky!!! It doesn’t dry up if you leave it out. And if it does fall on the floor, it vacuums or sweeps right up. Kids love it too which is really the most important part.

Next, I cut apart the pumpkin sound cards and positioned them in the “ground” as if they were growing in a pumpkin patch. They are staggered so that they are easy to view for the child sitting at the center. Each card depicts a pumpkin with a different picture in the middle. This activity focused on the beginning sound of each picture. In order for my preschooler, Emmett, to keep track of the letter sounds he found, I printed the letter mat and set it next to the “pumpkin patch” of pumpkin sound cards. This kept Emmett’s sound cards organized as he picked each pumpkin and identified the beginning sound of the picture.

As you can see, the letter mat does not include all 26 letters of the alphabet. I decided to include 16 of the most frequently used consonants in this activity. This is simply because Emmett just started learning letter sounds last month and I did not want to overwhelm him with the whole alphabet. We worked on this activity together as a pair by taking turns. If he came across a picture card that he wasn’t sure about, we talked it out together. On my turn, I purposely picked cards that I knew he would be less familiar with and modeled how to make the beginning sound and match it to the corresponding letter. I also kept his Alphabet Linking Chart handy so that he could refer to it as he worked. He frequently confused the letter sounds with the beginning sound a letter makes when you say it (i.e. He said M makes a short e sound). Having that linking chart handy was very helpful to him!! If you need an alphabet linking chart, click the button below to grab one from my shop. It’s FREE!!!

Alphabet Linking Chart

After we were finished picking all the “pumpkins” from the “pumpkin patch” we took a moment to look back over our finished sound mat. We said the pictures and their beginning sounds aloud again to reiterate the matches. Emmett was very pleased with his success and continued to play with the kinetic sand for another half hour or so.

If you have little learners who are still working on letter identification and are not quite ready for a letter sound matching activity, you can simply print the letter cards twice and have your kiddos match the letters to each other.

Speaking of letter identification and sound activities, you may also be interested in the pumpkin themed literacy activities for preschool and kindergarten from a previous post. These activities focus on phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge and beginning writing. Plus they are super fun and adorable!!

Pumpkin Themed Literacy activities

Wait!! Don’t forget to download your copy of the Pumpkin Patch Letter Sound Match Activity for FREE. Just click the button below and it is yours. As always, thank you for stopping by! I appreciate your interest and would love to hear what your kiddos thought of the Pumpkin Patch Letter Sound Match activity when they are done!!

Pumpkin Patch Letter sound match

It’s finally October and I am so excited to share these new pumpkin centers with you!! Usually, I like to blog about my preschool activities after I’ve used them. But I am planning on using these one or two at a time all throughout the month and want to get them to you ASAP. So hot of the press, here are 7 pumpkin themed literacy centers to enhance your students’ phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, and handwriting skills.

Phonemic Awareness

I’ve noticed early literacy teachers are always on the lookout for phonemic awareness materials WITHOUT print. I designed two activities with this in mind: Pumpkin Rhyming Cards and Pumpkin Syllable Count Clip Cards.

The rhyming cards include 8 sets of rhyming picture cards. Students can use these to play a game of Concentration. For my youngest players, I like to adapt the game by allowing them to leave their cards face up in their place. On the very first turn, the player flips two cards, and every turn after the players flip one card, collecting matches as they are discovered. This allows students to focus solely on the task of rhyming and not worry so much about remembering where the matches actually are.

The syllable clip cards also have only pictures for students to say aloud and count the syllables as they say them. Once they’ve determined the number of syllables in the word, they can clip the corresponding number on the card. Then continue on through the cards until each one is complete. If students are having trouble counting out syllables, challenge them to say the word without opening their mouth and count how many times their air tries to “escape.” You can also have them put their hand in front of their mouth and notice the breath hitting their hand as they talk.

Alphabet Knowledge

A lot of parents assume that learning the alphabet is an “easy” task for kids and figure that they should catch on quickly because the alphabet is so basic. Well, if you think about it, learning the alphabet requires the ability to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters as well as recall the phonetic sound that each letter makes (and several letters make more than one). Added up, learning your ABC’s actually involves retaining 96 pieces of information. That is a tall order for little people!! Luckily, kids are like sponges, and when you make it fun, they soak it right up.

These Pumpkin Alphabet Puzzles allow kids to connect uppercase and lowercase letters to make the pumpkins whole again. When I use these, I am mindful of how many letter puzzles I use at a time. I rarely use all 26 together because 52 little cards is just too much to manipulate. I usually choose the most recent 5 or 6 letters that we are still learning then add in another 5 or 6 letters that my preschooler has mastered. Keeping a high ratio of cards that your students have mastered in the game will actually help them retain the few that they encounter and are still trying to get right.

For those kiddos who are ready to practice their letter sounds, I created the Pumpkin Spin & Cover Beginning Sounds game. There are four variations of this printable, each with 6 different letter sounds to practice. All you need to do is print and gather something to cover up the corresponding pictures with. I used acrylic pumpkins that I found at the dollar store, but mini erasers, dot markers, crayons, or BINGO chips would also work perfectly. Students just take turns spinning the pumpkin spinner, identifying the letter sound, and covering up a picture that begins with the same sound.

Handwriting Skills

In my experience, handwriting is one of those things that kids either love or hate. Trying to compose the letters perfectly within the lines is intimidating and requires a lot of hard work. I designed three handwriting activities to help make writing more fun.

These Pumpkin Alphabet Tracing Cards are simple and can be used with dry erase markers after they are laminated. Kids can very quickly see their progress as they flip through and trace the given letters on each card. And the pumpkins are so cute!!

The Pumpkin Letter Draw activity can be very easily individualized depending on your students’ needs. As I said above, I wouldn’t choose to use every single alphabet card at one time. There is a set of uppercase and lowercase cards that you can choose from or pick just a few individual letters if you want your student to practice the same few letters more in depth. Have the students lay the cards face down in a draw pile then take turns picking one card at a time and recording it in the boxes on their recording sheet. It can be cooperative by filling up the board together or competitive by seeing who can fill their board first.

If your preschooler is ready to write words, the Pumpkin Write the Room activity is a perfect place to start. Simply hang the word cards throughout the room and have your students match the icons on the word cards to their recording sheet and write the corresponding word. You can display the pumpkin words in a pocket chart afterwards or leave them available to refer to in your writing corner.

If you are interested in adding these Pumpkin Literacy Centers to your collection click the button below. Have fun learning with Mrs Mama Bird!!

pumpkin literacy centers

More Fall Activities