This morning we found four pumpkins waiting for us in the classroom. We had lots of questions for Mrs. Watson!
We found out that we would be using the pumpkins for math today and that we would get to carve them tomorrow afternoon. We will be saving the seeds for roasting and we will even be using the pumpkin meat to make a tasty treat after Halloween.
We started Math by looking at pumpkin A and trying to guess its circumference. We each estimated how much yarn we would need to make a belt for the pumpkin. Almost all of us estimated too short, one guess was just right, and one guess was too long.
After learning about circumference we tried to estimate which pumpkin was the heaviest and which pumpkin was the lightest. You can see our guesses on this chart:
Then we broke into groups and measured our pumpkin’s height and circumference in centimetres. We also estimated how many lines or ribs our pumpkin had.
Finally, we had to guess how many seeds were in our pumpkins. Here are our guesses:
Group A
Brooklynn 91
Merissa 89
Solomon 98
Group B
Jacob 95
Jorja 200
Aydan 1
Group C
Lily 210
Taegan 96
Rhys 100
Group D
Sharon 150
Kezra 150
Koa 110
Hello Mrs. Watson’s K/1/2/3 Class,
Someone estimated the correct circumference of pumpkin A. That’s very impressive but would be very hard for me to do just by looking at the photos. :0
Which Pumpkin do you think was the heaviest?
This can be trickier than it seems. We would normally estimate the largest pumpkin as being the heaviest but that isn’t always so. If you cut open pumpkins, the seeds are in a pulpy hollow in the middle with the part we eat around it. The heaviest part is what we eat so if this is thin on a big pumpkin and thick on a smaller one, the smaller one might sometimes be heavier. I’ll have a guess.
I think the heaviest may be pumpkin C.
Which pumpkin do you think was the lightest?
Again the lightest can be tricky depending on what’s inside but I’ll try a guess again.
I think the lightest is B. It might be a little taller but it isn’t as wide.
How many seeds do you think we will have altogether?
Did you know someone has written a story, “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” (By: Margaret McNamara – Random House, Inc / 2007) In this story, the children find the smallest pumpkin had the most number of pumpkin seeds. I wonder if you found the same?
@RossMannell
Teacher (retired), N.S.W., Australia
Dear Mr. Mannell,
Thank you so much for leaving us a comment and for making some estimates of your own! We haven’t seen the book, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, but Mrs. Watson will take a look for it. It is cool that we had the same thing happen to us. One of the smallest pumpkins had the most seeds and the largest pumpkin had the fewest.
Your friends,
Mrs. W and the K/1/2/3s