Pumpkins

Our weeklong investigation of pumpkins was so much fun and resulted in many hands-on learning opportunities. We started our unit with a trip to the Parker Family Pumpkin Patch, where we learned about the pumpkin growing process, visited the fields where the pumpkins grow, and tried some yummy pumpkin foods.

Acting out the pumpkin life cycle.

Exploring various types of pumpkins.

Tasting pumpkin applesauce. Yum!

Enjoying pumpkin dip!

A class full of pumpkins!

Throughout the week, we were able to engage in a variety of activities to further our learning about pumpkins. In addition to reading many pumpkin stories and informational texts, students used the pumpkins that they brought back from the pumpkin patch to be scientists and answer various questions about them. We also observed our class pumpkin and drew representations of the pumpkin for our science notebooks. We then estimated how many seeds were in this pumpkin and then worked very hard to count them all!

Eliza measures how many links around her pumpkin is.

Eli investigates whether his pumpkin floats or sinks.

Rian and Violet investigate their pumpkins.

We read this book before estimating how many seeds were in our class pumpkin.

Our estimates.

Counting pumpkin seeds on tens frames!

Exploring the inside of our class pumpkin at the science table.

We listened to this book at the listening center and then drew and wrote about our favorite part.

Violet practices pointing to the words in her Pumpkin Lifecycle book.

Allyson hunts for letters at this pumpkin-themed station.

Eli plays the Pumpkin Syllables game during literacy centers.

We concluded our unit by sequencing the life cycle of a pumpkin and summarizing all that we learned during the unit. I wonder if anyone will be eating some pumpkin pie in a few short weeks?!