From seeds, to vines, to a blossom, to a green pumpkin, an orange pumpkin and back to seeds, it is all a part of the life cycle of a pumpkin. We started our study of pumpkins by reading the book, Pumpkin Circle.
We used our observation skills when cutting open the pumpkin to see what it looked like inside. Before we cut it open, we had
to draw what our pumpkin looked like, predict what it might look like
inside, and guesstimate how many seeds we thought might be inside.
There were some interesting guesses. All the way from five seeds to one
thousand seeds were estimated. We were surprised to find that there
were about 300 seeds inside our pumpkin.
During our lessons on pumpkins, our class read the book, Pumpkin Jack.
This is a book about a boy who puts his pumpkin out in the garden. Over the seasons, he watches the pumpkin change. In the Spring, he finds that Pumpkin Jack has rotted and produced lots of other new pumpkins.
This week we will put our pumpkin in a plastic crate with dirt in it and observe over time how our pumpkin changes. The children are really excited about watching how fast our pumpkin will rot.
