Pumpkin Activities

As well as being great fun, carving pumpkins and exploring winter vegetables can help your children develop many skills. These include developing muscle strength, problem-solving, creative designing and testing theories, to name a few.

For this activity, what you need and the process you follow will depend on your children’s ages and capabilities. Toddlers will need the pumpkin opened up for them so they can explore the contents safely. Older children can be carefully supervised and supported to use basic tools to carve and explore the pumpkin’s contents more independently.

Pumpkin activity ideas

Here are a few of our ideas that we have been sharing with the children this week:

Exploring pumpkins and winter vegetables

Here we have a selection of winter vegetables with different textures, consistencies, colours and smells for the children to explore using child-sized hammers and golf tees.

Remember to support your children by talking to them about how to hold the hammer and the tee.

Explore the pumpkin’s interior

Explore the inside of a pumpkin with younger children. Support their learning by talking about the texture, colour and naming the different items.

Make pumpkin and squash soup

We have taken a BBC Good Food recipe for you to follow below. Follow this recipe with your children to make warming, hearty soup.

Let your children join in and really be part of creating the soup by:

• Reading the recipe together
• Getting them to find the equipment that you need
• Measuring and weighing
• Cutting and peeling
• Stirring and tasting
• Setting a timer and the heat setting

All with lots of support, guidance and supervision from an adult.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1kg pumpkin or squash (try kabocha), peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
• 700ml vegetable stock or chicken stock
• 150ml double cream
• For the croutons
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 slices wholemeal seeded bread, crusts removed
• A handful of pumpkin seeds

Method

1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan, then gently cook 2 finely chopped onions for 5 mins, until soft but not coloured.
2. Add 1kg pumpkin or squash, cut into chunks, to the pan, then carry on cooking for 8-10 mins, stirring occasionally until it starts to soften and turn golden.
3. Pour 700ml vegetable or chicken stock into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins until the squash is very soft.
4. Pour 150ml double cream into the pan, bring back to the boil, then purée with a hand blender. For an extra-velvety consistency, you can pour the soup through a fine sieve. The soup can now be frozen for up to 2 months.
5. To make the croutons: cut 4 slices of wholemeal seeded bread into small squares.
6. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, then fry the bread until it starts to become crisp.
7. Add a handful of pumpkin seeds to the pan, then cook for a few mins more until they are toasted.

These can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container.