Preschool Name Activity With 5 Little Pumpkins

My favorite order for teaching letters is to start with the letters in our preschoolers' names. This pumpkins-on-a-gate name activity is perfect for that...and it ties in our favorite fall theme: 5 Little Pumpkins!!

We've been working on name recognition and letter recognition a lot this fall, and our kiddos can find their own name easily, but some of them lose track of some of the letters in their name as they try to write them. And, since this week is the Virtual Book Club's Pumpkin theme, I decided to make upper case and lower case pumpkin letters to use with our name activities. (They're also working great for some spelling activities with the older kids!)

To make your own Pumpkin Names on a Gate, you just need the free printable (link below), blue construction paper for the background, yellow construction paper for a moon, and scissors and glue!

1- Print and cut out the pumpkin letters. I did this in advance. ;)

2- Make a "pumpkin patch" by laying out the pumpkins in your kiddos names. I added some extra letters so the kids would have to figure out which letters were in their names and which were not.

3- Let them build their "pumpkin name gate!"

I think they turned out so adorable!!

We also used magnets to play with the pumpkin letters. I stuck the gates on a metal door with magnets, and then placed tons of pumpkin letters on the door with more magnets--the kids had fun putting their own names on a gate, spelling other words on the gate, and putting other letter patterns on the gate.

CLICK HERE to get a FREE set of pumpkin letters and a gate!!

After our kids learn the letters in their names, we learn the letters in their friends and siblings names. It's a fun and meaningful sequence to learn letters in, and it feels so natural to them and me.

Are you doing a pumpkin theme? If so, why not check out our BIG collection of preschool pumpkin activities? It's full of printables, letter activities, science, math, and so much more!

We also LOVE Halloween science and dry ice experiments! Be sure to check out our collections!!

And, if you are looking for preschool pumpkin activities, this is the week for you!! The Virtual Book Club for Kids (VBC) is celebrating pumpkins this week! Go to the Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook page for all the action, read 5 Little Pumpkins (image below is an Amazon affiliate link), and pick some fun pumpkin activities to try! Be sure to check out the pumpkin activities from the VBC co-hosts this week too (links below)!