Un-Halloween Fun: A Memorable Celebration for Those Who May Not Celebrate Halloween

Orange and black items dominate this time of year and many are looking forward to upcoming Halloween celebrations. However, some don't celebrate the holiday for religious or other reasons. Should they simply hole up in their homes and wait twenty-four hours for the holiday to pass? Absolutely not! During my time as a preschool teacher, I developed a fun celebration that focused on autumn as a whole rather than specifically Halloween.

We began our day by observing, and discussing, the characteristics of a pumpkin. We discussed their texture, their range of shapes and sizes, and hypothesized about what the inside of a pumpkin is like (Obviously, many children are aware of what the inside of a pumpkin looks like!). Then, we opened the top of the pumpkin to get a closer look and see if the children's guesses had been correct. We also discussed how the inside of the pumpkin could be used to make a pumpkin pie.

The children then created an art project to help illustrate their understanding of the lesson. They were given two orange construction paper pumpkins to cut out. The top pumpkin had the words "What's inside a pumpkin?" The children were given real pumpkin seeds and small pieces of white yarn to glue to the second pumpkin. This illustrated the seeds and string that are found inside a pumpkin. (Just a note, I gave the children pumpkin seeds that I had cleaned before class. It would have taken too much class time to use the ones we'd removed from the pumpkin during the lesson). We attached the two pumpkins together at the stem with a brass brad.

Following our art project, it was time to set up for a scavenger hunt. I brought out our class mascot Ben the Bunny (He happens to be a puppet and is a cherished part of our class). Ben the Bunny brought his own real pumpkin to the class. He talked about how his mom was planning to turn his beloved pumpkin into pumpkin pie when our class was done with snack time. Ben the Bunny was devastated. The children and I talked to Ben the Bunny and discussed how some pumpkins are, in fact, turned into pumpkin pie. We sympathized with his situation and then took a break for our snack time.

While the children were washing from snack time, my teaching assistant took Ben the Bunny, and his beloved pumpkin, and hid them in a predetermined spot. The search for the Runaway Pumpkin had begun. We left a pumpkin shaped clue on the chair where Ben the Bunny and the pumpkin had been. The clue read "I don't want my pumpkin to be turned into pumpkin pie so I took him somewhere safe. Orange pumpkins are kind of like orange basketballs. To start our hunt, go to the place in our school where you can play basketball." We had the children go to six different locations finding Ben the Bunny and his pumpkin at the final place. We gave the children stickers we had printed on the computer that read, "I helped find the Runaway Pumpkin" (These are good conversation starters for parents to discuss the school day with their children).

To end our day, we played a large motor game I call "Inside the Pumpkin Patch." The children were divided into two teams and placed at opposite ends of our gym. Each team was placed next to a children's swimming pool (their pumpkin patch) filled with orange balloons (pumpkins). The idea is to get as many pumpkins from the other team's pumpkin patch into their own pumpkin patch before time ran out. Whichever team had the most pumpkins in their pumpkin patch when time ran out would be the winner. We had our students play for about three minutes a session and played three or four sessions.

I hope you find these ideas to be helpful. I think many of them can be adjusted for different ages. Enjoy your fall celebration!