Friday, November 4, 2011

The Science of Pumpkins


There are so many activities related to pumpkins. For the past few weeks in Science, the children have been learning about this very special seasonal fruit. Oh yes, it is a fruit. We learned that fruits have seeds in them and vegetables do not.This was a big surprise to everyone. Children were invited to scoop out the pumpkin's pulp so that we could estimate the amount of seeds that were in it.

After all of the seeds were gathered, students wrote their guesses on a sticky note and placed it on the chart. The estimates ranges from 40 to 80,000!

Then they came up and placed ten seeds each onto plates so that we could count by 10's and find out the number. That pumpkin had over 300 seeds! Today our experiment was a sink and float activity whereby the students predicted if they thought various items might sink or float. There was a pen, paper clip, cup, bracelet, water bottle, stapler, gourd, and a few different sized pumpkins in the tub of water. The children were quite surprised to out what actually sank and floated.

7 comments:

Sofia said...

miss. mallon and dillrd
Even from the hospital I went on the blog love Sofia.

Crissy said...

What a fun day! It looks like Mrs. Dillard was the better guesser over Mrs. Mallon! :0) I love seeing all the little fingers counting sticky pumpkin seeds.

Maria Mallon & Cheryl Dillard said...

Oh yeah - Crissy - she beat me again! I'll try harder next time we clean out a pumpkin :)

Christa said...

How fun! What great learning activities for kids...kudos!!

Kristen T. said...

James said he loved this activity. He was amazed that a pumpkin could float. He really enjoys science, so thanks for bringing it alive for the children.

Lourdes said...

Sofi loved impressing the family with the knowledge that a pumpkin is a fruit and then naming parts, like the ribs. I love seeing the seeds in her head sprout. Thank you for all the fun learning!

Tia's Grandmother said...

I just love being able to see what Tia's class is learning about even from upstate NY. This blog is a great idea!

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