All About Pumpkins

We had fun exploring our class pumpkin during the last week of October.  We used this anchor chart to help guide our exploration.  First, we found words to describe the outside of the pumpkin.  Next, we made estimates of how many ribs (the lines on the pumpkins) were on the pumpkin.  Then we finally counted the ribs and found there were 34.  Then, using Unifix cubes, we measured how tall our pumpkin was.  Lastly, the children drew a scientific drawing of the pumpkin to be placed on our chart.

The following day, the children estimated how many seeds they thought were in the pumpkin.  Then, the children helped take the seeds out of the pumpkin while exploring the pulp, which some children LOVED and others, not so much.

When we came back to the rug, we read the book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?.  After the read aloud, we decided that counting the seeds that came from our pumpkin by 10's would be the easiest.  So with lots of help, the children helped put the seeds in groups of 10's.  Finally, we were ready to count the seeds.  We found that our pumpkin had 550 seeds!

To finish our anchor chart, the children described the inside of the pumpkin.

As a fun science experiment, the children made predictions of what they thought would happen when a piece of the pumpkin was placed inside a container with dirt.  They drew and wrote about their predictions in their science notebooks.  We'll be observing the changes of the pumpkin for the next month.

The pumpkin will rot.

The pumpkin will sink in the dirt.

The pumpkin will get dirty.

As a fun art project and a great way to end our unit on pumpkins, the children created their own pumpkin face, which was inspired by the book Pumpkin Heads.  They used orange and green paper, which they had painted, to create their very unique pumpkins.  Then, they shared one piece of information about pumpkins.  Take a listen to the Voicethread below that shares what the children wrote.