Pumpkin Math

On the last day of October we carved six pumpkins. Yes, we did carve faces into them and yes, we did use candles to light them up but our lesson was much more interesting than just that. First we did some estimating. How heavy was our pumpkin? How many seeds did it hold? What was the circumference? Then we actually measured to find the answers to our questions. After writing our conclusions, we carved faces and lit them up.

Estimating

Scooping seeds out

Sorting the seeds

Finished project

A Bad Case of Stripes

We read a book called A Bad Case of Stipes by David Shannon. Then we all brought in a small pumpkin. Last Wednesday we painted our pumpkins in stripes to match Camilla, the main character in the book. In the afternoon we glued hair, a bow, and eyes on our pumpkins and then drew a nose and mouth 0n with a Sharpie marker. Just for fun we germinated lima bean seeds and put them in soil. Our plants are starting to grow! This is important because Camilla became striped in the story when she pretended that she didn't like to eat lima beans when, of course, she loved them! Because she wasn't being true to herself, she broke out in all sorts of crazy things - the stripes were just the beginning.

Pumpkin Math

On October 31st we had a day filled with Pumpkin Math! Ten wonderful parents sent in pumpkins of various sizes. The children split into small groups and estimated how heavy their pumpkins were, what the diameter and circumference would be, and how many seeds they would find inside. Our awesome parent volunteers helped the kids actually weigh and measure the pumpkins and then cut off the top so the children could count the seeds. When all data was collected and recorded the kids drew jack-o-lantern faces and the adults cut them out. At the end of the day the pumpkins were raffled off and sent home!

By Mrs. Morris

Painting our Literary Pumpkins

We read the book More M&M Math today in school. We painted our pumpkins like M&M's using blue, yellow, orange, green, red, and brown. We each got our own pack of M&M's and as we read the book we sorted them in colors and put them in lines (like a graph), and then we divided them into groups before we ate them. On Monday we will be taking the pumpkins downstairs to set up a display. Be sure to stop by the school to see them.

By Jared