Pumpkin Seed Alphabet Activity

Get ready for Halloween with this easy prep pumpkin seed alphabet activity! These free printable cards are a fun way to practice lowercase letter tracing and alphabet letter matching skills. Read on to find out all the ways you can use them…

October is one of my favorite months. I love dreaming up costumes, eating too much candy, and seeing adorable children enjoying the holiday (yes, even when they’re amped up on sugar!). Plus, I can’t miss carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds.

I know lots of teachers and homeschoolers like to do pumpkin theme activities too. This free printable is an easy way to add an early literacy element to that this fall. I have a similar free printable with apple seeds, and it has been popular here on the blog.

(Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

Preparing Your Pumpkin Seed Printable

You can sign up at the bottom of this post to receive a copy of the printable. Then, it’s pretty easy to prep for your students.

I’ll email you the printable for free, and add you to my weekly-ish newsletter too – it’s full of ideas and more free printables. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

  • First, print off the pages and cut apart into cards. You may like to print it on cardstock or tagboard.
  • You’ll also need to laminate it so that students can write on it with dry erase marker. (If you’re a homeschooler and don’t have a personal laminator, clear contact paper also works well.)

How to Introduce the Pumpkin Seed Alphabet Activity

  • Begin by pointing out how these cards have pumpkin seeds in the shape of letters.
  • Then, show the children how to connect the seeds into letters, and how they can match the lowercase and uppercase cards.

Try These Pumpkin Literacy Center Ideas

This pumpkin seed alphabet activity is perfect for literacy centers. You can set out the whole alphabet, or just a few pairs of letters, depending on your students’ needs. Here are a few ideas for incorporating these letter cards in your October literacy centers:

  • Set out 5-10 pairs of letters for students to play concentration (a.k.a. Memory) or similar matching games. Once cards are matched, students can trace the letters with a dry erase marker.
  • Pairs of students, or a student and teacher, can play an open handed (i.e. face up on a table) version of Go Fish with these cards.
  • More advanced students can use the cards like letter tiles for spelling out words.
  • Younger children may be more engaged if you place some cards into a seasonal sensory bin. I printed these 4 pages per sheet to get smaller cards that are a nice size for my small bin. (To do that, you click “Multiple” in the Adobe print dialogue menu.) Note, they aren’t big enough for tracing at this size.
This sensory bin includes popcorn, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and fabric fall leaves from the dollar store, along with the pumpkin alphabet cards. You might like to add tongs, a scoop, and small containers.
  • Finally, you could add some seasonal flair by putting the uppercase cards into a fake pumpkin. Then, students can reach in and draw one card, and then find that card’s lowercase match, and trace it.

(Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

Extend the Learning

Before you introduce these pumpkin alphabet cards, you might like to read aloud a book or two about pumpkins. Here are a couple I like:

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie by Jill Esbaum – is a preschool-level nonfiction book that explains how pumpkins grow and the ways they can be used. (affiliate)

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer is a bit longer, but it provides a lot of details in simple language. (affiliate)

Download Your Free Printable Pumpkin ABC Cards

Ready for the free pumpkin trace & match cards?

To get your very own copy, you can sign up right here:

    I’ll add you to my weekly-ish newsletter too – it’s full of ideas and more free printables. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

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