fall crafts

You can do an easy science experiment for a fun pumpkin study by observing a rotting pumpkin. Also, you’ll love my page Fall Season Unit Study {Pumpkins, Leaves, Corn, & More}.

Even though it will take its course through most of the seasons this is still a great experiment.

For example, observe and record the physical and chemical changes over a few weeks and then long term if you wish.

Note: My free printables were free for a limited time for my subscribers.

Also, look at my post How to Turn a Pumpkin Lapbook into a Fun Unit Study.

This pumpkin study with a rotting pumpkin experiment is appropriate for preschool through mid-elementary.

However, the whole family will enjoy observing and seeing how long it takes for each change to occur.

Be sure to download my pumpkin printables to use along with this pumpkin study.

The life cycle worksheet goes especially well with this activity.

5 Pumpkin Study Life Cycle Facts

Let’s walk through the 5 simple steps of a pumpkins life cycle.

1. A pumpkin’s life starts by planting a pumpkin seed in the warm ground, if the pumpkin has access to lots of water and sunshine the seeds will become a small plant, or sprout.
2. Then the leaves and vines will begin to grow larger. They grow outward.
3. Next, the yellow pumpkin flowers will blossom, and then fall off, here is where the tiny pumpkins will start.
4. Now, a little green pumpkin will grow.
5. That green pumpkin will ripen overtime into an orange pumpkin and ripen and be ready to pick.

Also, add some of these books about pumpkins and resources to your study.

Pumpkin Vocabulary

While observing your rotting pumpkin here are a few vocabulary words to introduce.

Older children can look them up with a physical dictionary and define the words, put them in alphabetical order, or even use them as their spelling words for the week.

• Pumpkin- A coarse vine generally cultivated for its large pulpy round orange fruit with a firm orange skin and many seeds.

• Organism- a living thing made up of one or more cells and able to carry on the activities of life using energy, growing, and reproducing.

• Life cycle-  the series of changes in the life of an organism.

• Decompose– to break down or be broken down into simpler parts, especially by the action of living things.

• Fungus-any of a group of spore-producing organisms that feed on organic matter, including molds, yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools.

• Harvest- to gather in a crop, to gather or collect for use.

• Germinate- to begin to grow.

Next, add some pumpkin stem activities.

Hands-on Pumpkin Activities and Pumpkin STEM

• 10 Pumpkin Fall Crafts and Two Yummy Pumpkin Seed Recipes
• Grow these Pumpkin Shaped Crystals for a fun experiment in simple chemistry.
• Pumpkin Anatomy | Kids Exploring the Parts of a Pumpkin And Printables
• This Pumpkin Chemistry-Testing for vitamin C with iodine experiment is great for multiple ages.
• How to Make Pumpkin Spice Body Scrub & 7 Fall DIY Crafts For Teens
• Work in some math with measuring, weighing, and counting seeds using Fun With Pumpkins
• Kids Fun Glue and Watercolor Fall Pumpkin Unit Study
• This challenge includes 4 awesome activities – Exploding Pumpkin STEAM: 4 Fall Pumpkin Activities and will really engage the kids.
• Kids Fun Pumpkin Catapult STEM Challenge for Medieval Unit Study
• Create a raft for your pumpkin that will float in the Easy Science Experiments for Fall.
• Fall Y’all:Pumpkin Pie in a Bag (Easy Homeschool Co-op Idea)
• Consider creating a science journal just to document the rotting pumpkin from start to finish with images and notes.

Finally, look at this rotting pumpkin experiment.

Rotting Pumpkin Experiment

You can start your rotting pumpkin experiment anytime in the fall but do expect it to take 6-8 months for the full decomposing and resprout.

So, this is a long-term experiment.

You will need:

• Small pumpkin
• Glass jar with sealing lid
• Soil
• Spray bottle of water

Place 2 inches of soil in the bottom of your jar.

Spray the inside of the jar and soil well with bottle of water.

Cut the top of the pumpkin off.

Then cut a few holes in your pumpkin.

Before placing your pumpkin in a jar, it’s a great time to let your little one explore with pinchers and a magnifying glass.

Pumpkin Science Rotting Pumpkin Experiment

Look at the leaves and the fibrous strings in the skin.

Talk about the different parts of a pumpkin, and what each one does.

Remove some seeds at this time and wrap them in a wet paper towel.

Place them in a plastic baggie and tape them to a sunny window for a few days until they sprout.

To encourage quicker germination, you can take fingernail clippers and clip just the edge of the shell. You don’t want to damage the tender seed inside.

When they are done exploring the pumpkin, place it on top of the soil.

Place the sealing lid back on the jar, if yours does not have the silicone sealing ring you can use tape to seal the edges.

Place the jar in a warm sunny window.

Check back on your pumpkin every day and each time you do observe and talk about the physical changes you see.

Here is our pumpkin after 24 hours.

3 days 

10 days.

14 days.

A few times early on you might want to remove the lid and open the pumpkin to observe what’s happening inside.

But eventually you will not want to take the lid off until you have it outside, it can get close.

Besides, the moisture and warm air trapped in the jar will help it decompose faster.

We will keep it going until it’s ready to replant next year.

Once your pumpkin has completely broken down, take your jar, parentheses outside, parentheses and remove the land spritz the soil very well with water.

Within a few days, you should start to be able to see pumpkin sprouts. If you have too many in your jar, you can remove some and plant them in other containers.

Note: My free printables were free for a limited time for my subscribers.

Grab the pumpkin lapbook and notebooking pages below

How to Get the Pumpkin Lapbook and Notebooking Pages