Pumpkin Math
By Caroline Wyman
Objective: The children will be able to use a pumpkin for multi-disciplinary lessons including math, language arts, and art. Grades K-3
Initiation: Read a Halloween or pumpkin story to the class. There are several to choose from. Have a discussion about pumpkins and things that you can use a pumpkin for.
Development: Use a web organizer to chart all of the ideas that the class can think of to use a pumpkin for. The web organizer is a good one to use for Halloween too. Dedicate one whole day to pumpkin projects as they move throughout the classroom from one center to another. Or plan it out throughout the week to do a little each day. Have each student complete each center with a different pumpkin activity at each. One center might be counting the number of seeds in the pumpkin, graphing seeds, adding and subtracting seeds...another center might be writing about your pumpkin. You can have a lined piece of paper with the heading "I knew it was going to be bad day when my pumpkin..." the student can then continue the sentence and write a story about their pumpkin. You can also have an art center where each student can paint their pumpkin and create something original. There are several other pumpkin centers to choose from including a reading center about pumpkins, a research pumpkin center, a pumpkin recipe center and so on...
Closure: Come together after all of the centers have been completed and have each student share one of their favorite centers.
Materials: Pumpkins!
Time: Depends on how you want to organize it.
Caroline Wyman has a degree in Sociology and a Masters in Elementary Education and is the administrator for TeacherNet.com.