Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater...Lots and Lots of Pumpkin Fun!

Can there ever be too much orange this time of year?  The answer is no if you are spending time with a big Boise State fan, and you are taking the grandkids to a corn maze and pumpkin patch.

The answer is also no, if you want to use your senses and math skills to explore pumpkins.  This week we will be doing just that.

We are reading about how pumpkins grow and creating a life cycle poster.

We will label the parts of a pumpkin.

We will closely observe both the inside and outside of a pumpkin.  We will weigh them and measure them and scoop out all the guts and count the seeds.  We will answer the question...Does the biggest pumpkin have the most seeds?

I have a trick for counting the seeds...scoop them out one day and don't count until the next.  This helps with the slipperyness of the seeds.  They are much easier to handle.

Second trick for counting seeds....use small cups and bigger cups to keep things organized.  10 seeds in a cup, 10 little cups go into a bigger cup.  Start over.  Count  the big cups as 100, and then how many cups of 10, and finally how many little ones left over.  Second part of this trick....invite parents to come and help count the seeds.  I have the best parents!

If you are not tired of pumpkins yet try some of these great books....