It’s officially Fall!
Have you heard/read/seen the Five Little Pumpkins yet???? 😀
I get it. Five Little Pumpkins is an incredibly cute and catchy Halloween rhyme. We love it here, too….my four and two year old have it memorized already, and it is only September. It is a great “go-to” rhyme, and many teachers and storytime facilitators have had great success with it.
But we may be overdoing it with the Five Little Pumpkins. I kid you not last year I heard a teacher spontaneously sing it with her preschoolers in February. February, people!!
So to celebrate the arrival of a brand new season, I’ve been brainstorming a few new Halloween rhymes to use with the kids. Nothing can replace Five Little Pumpkins(!!!), but hopefully we can mix it up a bit this year! (Stay tuned all week for brand new rhymes!!)
A spin on the classic version, the Five Purple Pumpkins works great with a felt board or in mini storybooks. It is also especially fun with our five purple pumpkin craft…Instructions immediately following the rhyme!
Click on the link below to download and print the PDF or continue reading for the full rhyme.
Five Purple Pumpkins
Five purple pumpkins with their lights shining bright
Smiled and sneered on Halloween night
Awhoo went a wolf and whooosh blew the wind
And one bright purple pumpkin dimmed
Four purple pumpkins with their lights shining bright
Smiled and sneered on Halloween night
Awhoo went a wolf and whooosh blew the wind
And one bright purple pumpkin dimmed
Three purple pumpkins with their lights shining bright
Smiled and sneered on Halloween night
Awhoo went a wolf and whooosh blew the wind
And one bright purple pumpkin dimmed
Two purple pumpkins with their lights shining bright
Smiled and sneered on Halloween night
Awhoo went a wolf and whooosh blew the wind
And one bright purple pumpkin dimmed
One purple pumpkin with her light shining bright
Smiled and sneered on Halloween night
Awhoo went a wolf and whooosh blew the wind
And one bright purple pumpkin dimmed
Five purple pumpkins in the cool, dark night
Ready to give a Halloween fright…BOO!!!
We tried this rhyme this weekend, and it is so cute with the Five Purple Pumpkins craft!
This is all you need to get started!
- Trace and cut out ten purple pumpkins (a front and back for each of the five pumpkins).
- Cut out yellow pumpkin eyes, nose, and mouth. You need five sets of yellow.
- Cut out black pumpkin eyes, nose, and mouth. You need five sets of black to match the yellow. (If you cut the black and yellow paper together you can do steps two and three at once).
- Cut out ten green stems.
- Glue faces onto pumpkins.
- Glue matching pumpkins together, with a popsicle stick in the middle.
When you are done you will have five purple pumpkins! Each side has a face that is lit up (yellow) and one that is dimmed (black). With each verse, flip the pumpkins from the yellow side to the black. At the end, all pumpkins will be dimmed and will say, Boo! Check out UG’s Facebook page for a video on how I completed the craft!

I hope your preschoolers enjoy this brand new Fall rhyme! What rhymes do you use with young children to celebrate and learn about Fall?
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