5 Little Pumpkins

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate… Many of us are familiar with this poem  from preschool, grade school or from their child’s school.

I want to share with your a few ways to share in this rhyme… plus 2 versions, a Halloween and a Non Halloween Version!

First the variations, small, but makes a big difference on how you celebrate this season:

Version One – Non Halloween:

1. Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate

2. The first one said “oh my its getting late”

3. The second one said “Theres a chill in the air”

4. The third one said “But we don’t care” 

5. The fourth one said “Lets Run and run and run”

6. The fifth one said “I’m ready for some fun”

7. Woo went the wind, out went the lights

8. and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

The Halloween is almost the same:

1. Five Halloween pumpkins sitting on a gate

2. The first one said “oh my its getting late”

3. The second one said “There’s witches in the air”

4. The third one said “But we don’t care” 

5. The fourth one said “Lets Run and run and run”

6. The fifth one said “I’m ready for some fun”

7. Woo went the wind, out went the lights

8. and the five Halloween pumpkins rolled out of sight

There are MANY ways you can do this activity: flannel board, story book, finger puppets, finger play motions, with real pumpkins and I am sure I am missing some.

Flannel Board/Real Pumpkins:

flannel Prep: Cut out 5 pumpkins from flannel, add embellishments (pumpkin numbers, stems etc) (if doing halloween add jack-o-lantern faces), and a gate. (for Halloween version, you can cut out a witch) some cut out a moon or other fall elements to add to the scence

Set up your scene with the 5 pumpkins on a gate point to each one and as they are done with their phrase pull them off the board. By the end they will all be off the board. You can have a child pull off a pumpkin if wanted

Pumpkins Prep: Keep pumpkins as is or paint on faces, and do the rhyme as you would above with the flannel!

Story Book:

This is also a story book. You can read it to the class and follow up with a counting activity.

Finger Puppets:  

Prep: stretchy gloves from the dollar store. Small flannel pumpkins like the flannel board (but finger size) Hot glue the flannel pumpkins to the gloves. Do the same to the other glove, keep one for your teacher resources, and one for kids to play with in their story center.

When singing the song wiggle the finger of each pumpkins as they speak their line and when they “roll out of site” roll your hands over the other.

Finger Play:

Just like the finger puppets and you help the kids to the same motions, I found a great video on you tube that shows the hand motions (no its not me, but soon I will have these activities ready to view on video)!

When you are done, you can follow through in your class with an art project, counting to 5 around the class. Keep the props open for kids to play with through out the day.