Oh, there is so much to do with pumpkins! We cut a jack-o-lantern to watch him rot! First, we had to cut him open and remove his pulp and seeds. Then, the students voted on the shapes of his eyes, nose, and mouth. I took home the seeds to bake with oil and salt. We had a taste test with our snack the next day. Many of the students asked for seconds (and even thirds). Some thought the pumpkin seeds tasted like popcorn! After about a week, we are starting to see some changes in our jack-o-lantern. One student accidentally poked a hole in Mr. Rottenhead and discovered how soft his shell had become. Today, we cooked Rice Krispies Treats in the crockpot and made made them look like pumpkins! We transformed our Homeliving Center into Pumpkinville! The students compared pumpkins and gourds by color, shape, size, and weight. They even stacked all the pumpkins and gourds on the scale to see how high they could get the weight. 23 lbs was the heaviest amount they could make. The students made music using a dried birdhouse gourd. They did most of the scenery decorations, too! We used a pumpkin, push pins, and rubber bands to make a Geo Pumpkin. And my favorite activity so far, was planting pumpkins inside a pumpkin! We cut open some pie pumpkins, pulled out some of the seeds, but not all. We added soil and then pushed some of the seeds in the soil near the top. We watered the pumpkin planters and left them in the window. It only took a week for the sprouts to shoot up! We will continue to watch one of the pumpkins, as the sprouts grow into plants. Since one had no sprouts yet, we decided to investigate. The students pulled out the dirt and found that some seeds had not grown at all and some were growing underneath the dirt. Update: 5/9/16 We left our composted dirt from the fall outside our classroom door. We used some of the soil for Spring time planting. One day, we noticed the pumpkins that had been composted had started to grow. We watered and watched as a new pumpkin plant grew! And look! We have a flower. :)
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AuthorKatelyn Stephenson, Archives
February 2017
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