30 Pumpkin Videos to Captivate Your Kindergarten Class
October is a busy month in kindergarten, full of exciting themes and activities. While I’m sure you have lots planned to keep your kiddos engaged and learning, sometimes it’s nice to be able to put on a video for a few minutes! This list of pumpkin videos will ensure that you always have what you need to supplement your pumpkin lessons, integrate your pumpkin theme with your academic standards, or give your students a much-needed brain break.
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Still planning your pumpkin theme? Check out this list of perfect pumpkin books to read aloud in kindergarten and this post with free pumpkin math activities!
Scroll on to see a whole bunch of pumpkin videos for kindergarten! I’ve categorized the videos to help you quickly find what you’re looking for! 🎃
Pumpkin Videos that Teach Science Concepts
These pumpkin videos are great for reinforcing science concepts! This first one by The Kiboomers is a catchy song about how to grow pumpkins. This one reinforces the parts of a pumpkin plant. Your students might enjoy creating motions to go along with this song, which is to the tune of “Do You Know the Muffin Man.”
This Harry Kindergarten song is short, but packed with pumpkin facts! In this catchy tune, Mr. Harry shares info about the parts of a pumpkin, how pumpkins grow, and things that people make from pumpkins.
This pumpkin life cycle song is short and simple, perfect for kids to memorize and sing along. The video includes photos and has the children sing along at increasing speeds. Fun! Casey, the creator of this cute pumpkin song, has also made up some motions to go along with it. You can see them here in this additional video.
This mesmerizing video shows a timelapse of a pumpkin growing from a seed. The footage is really cool and will provide lots of opportunities for discussion and identification of parts of the plant. FYI, this video ends with the pumpkin being turned into a Jack-o’-lantern. If you don’t do Halloween in your classroom you can just be prepared to cut the video off early. Another interesting video to show is this one by the same creator in which they were unable to successfully pollinate the plant, so no pumpkin grew.
Here’s another neat pumpkin life cycle video. This one, by Scholastic, is narrated and includes labels and content vocabulary that will help guide your students toward informational writing.
This episode of SciShow Kids is such a great intro to a classroom pumpkin exploration! In the video, Jessi and Squeaks dissect a pumpkin and, in doing so, describe the parts of a pumpkin, injecting loads of useful vocabulary and concepts into the lesson. This is one of my favorite pumpkin videos!
If you read Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell to your class and talk about decomposition, you might want to share this timelapse of three Jack-o’-lanterns decomposing. Gross, but interesting!
Find pumpkin lessons and activities for your class in this Pumpkin Bundle!
Pumpkin Videos with Math Concepts
Here are some fun pumpkin videos with songs that reinforce counting and cardinality in kindergarten.
This first one is a Laurie Berkner song that focuses on numbers through five. The video has some neat details for students to pay attention to (for example, they can’t count the crow’s “caws” during each verse). The first part of the song is fairly slow-paced and great for singing along. The second part is fast-paced and involves standing up and moving. FYI, the song ends at about the 2:20 mark. After that is some talking and behind-the-scenes footage.
Also about the numbers through five, this classic children’s song, “Five Little Pumpkins,” is always a hit! This Kiboomers version has cute Jack-o’-lantern animation and goes through the song two times. Here’s a video with the fingerplay version if you’d like your students to learn the motions that go along with the song.
This next counting son by Miss Moly goes up to ten pumpkins and has plenty of repeated practice!
And here’s one, also by Miss Molly, that goes up to 20!
Pumpkin Videos to Support Literacy Concepts
Nothing beats beautiful children’s literature in your classroom, but these pumpkin videos also can support your reading instruction!
This first video is a silly read-aloud of Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins. The hosts interject humorous commentary and use fun voices, modeling a fun relationship with books. A video read-aloud also offers opportunities to pause and look closely at the text. This gives students the chance to look for familiar spelling patterns that tie in with your classroom reading instruction.
Here’s another fun video read-aloud. This one is of The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz, which is a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling. Consider using this video (or the actual book, which you can find here on Amazon) as part of a comparison activity with the traditional story. The Ugly Pumpkin ends with Thanksgiving, so this might be a fun one to use toward the end of your pumpkin study, as we head into November. (Here’s a read-aloud version of The Ugly Duckling if you’d like to use it to compare!)
Rhyming can be a tough skill for kindergartners to master. Using nursery rhymes for practice gives students repeated exposure to rhyme and helps them build their background knowledge. This Cool School version of Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater will make your kiddos laugh and will teach them a traditional rhyme that they may not already know!
Speaking of rhyming, here’s another read-aloud storybook. This one, of The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis, has rollicking, rhyming text.
Pumpkin Videos for Virtual Field Trips
Can’t make it to the pumpkin patch this year? Give your students a feel for the experience with one of these virtual field trip videos.
This 5-minute Harry Kindergarten video gives a great synopsis of the pumpkin patch experience with a lot of science content thrown in.
This virtual field trip with Miss Stephanie is a bit longer at about 9 minutes and is fairly slow-paced. This might be a nice one to watch when students need some time to rest or decompress.
This next one is fairly short and doesn’t have as much educational content, but it does follow an actual kindergarten class as they take the bus to visit a pumpkin patch. If you are going to go on a real field trip, this would be a good one to watch beforehand to bring up some discussion points for what the children can expect to see and do.
This “Going on a Pumpkin Hunt” is less of a virtual field trip than a brain break or movement activity, but I included it in this section since it exposes students to several aspects of a pumpkin patch experience.
Pumpkin Videos with Art Ideas
A thematic unit is not complete without some opportunities for art and crafts. Here are a few videos with ideas you can use with your class!
This first video is a directed drawing of a pumpkin by Art for Kids Hub. I love this channel because the videos are really kid-friendly and the dad has such a sweet way of interacting with his kids! This video was made for Thanksgiving, but it’s a nice basic (non-Jack-o’-lantern) pumpkin drawing that’s perfect for October, too.
Here’s another fun directed drawing, this one a Jack-o’-lantern from Art Land.
The craft in this video from Art for Kids Hub is too difficult for kindergartners to do on their own. I’m including it because I think it would be a great craft for students to do with older buddies if you have them or with parents during a family event (such as a fall festival).
Here’s a simpler 3-D pumpkin craft (though young students will still likely need some help).
More Pumpkin Videos: Just for Fun!
Sometimes you just need a little brain break! These videos don’t quite fit into the above categories, but they all have some value for entertaining and/or informing.
“This Is the Way We Carve a Pumpkin” is a calming song that children will be able to learn quickly in order to sing along.
“That’s How a Pumpkin Grows” by Brian Vogan has really neat animation and fun lyrics that may introduce students to some new vocabulary (such as “harvest moon”).
“Pick a Pumpkin” is a catchy tune from Janice Music Activities that is accompanied by ASL signs.
“Pass the Pumpkin” is a circle-time song and game. Have your students sit in a circle and pass a small pumpkin. The person who is holding the pumpkin when you all sing, “BOO!” is out. Games like this are a gentle way to teach kindergartners sportsmanship and how to deal with disappointment. Children who are temporarily out of the game can still watch and laugh along with their friends and there will always be a chance to play again.
This sill Jack Hartmann song, “Pumpkin Man Dance,” will get ALL the wiggles out. This is a fun brain break or fall party activity.
If you are reading Pumpkin Day at the Zoo, which is included in my Pumpkin Read-Alouds blog post (and available here from Amazon), you have to show your students this adorable video from Brookfield Zoo of animals interacting with pumpkins!
And, because I apparently cannot resist animals eating pumpkins, this video of a porcupine munching away on a little pumpkin is a must-see!
I hope this collection of pumpkin videos makes your October a little easier! Thanks for reading!
Pumpkins Unit with PowerPoint
This “All About Pumpkins” thematic unit includes materials to help you integrate learning about pumpkins into science, literacy, and math in your primary classroom. You will download a zipped folder containing a PowerPoint File and a PDF.
