Our pumpkin investigation couldn’t get started until we had one very important element: The Pumpkins!

On Monday Morning we went on a casual walk to enjoy the autumn colors, but when we got to the upper field, look at what we found!

On Tuesday, we measured to see if the Beginner’s bellys were wider around than our knuckle head pumpkin. We learned that everyone was smaller than the pumpkin. Tape measures were left out for the Beginners to  experiment with measuring pumpkins on their own. 

Wednesday, we answered the much anticipated question; Do pumpkins sink? Or do they float?
The Beginners hypothesized that big ones would float and small ones would sink. But, they all floated. We looked at pictures of big state fair pumokins weighing it at a thousand pounds and talked about how they would also float because they are hollow, or have air in them. 

What shape are pumpkins? Are they smooth, lumpy, or bumpy? On Thursday, we turned out the lights and put a spotlight on the pumpkins to see what their shadows looked like. Then, using pencils, we traced around their shadows, and later painted them, using primary colors to mix into shades of pumpkin. 

To finish out the week, we opened a few pumpkins to check out what is happening inside. There were seeds and stringy pulp. Inside the white pumpkin, the seeds were darker than those in the white pumpkin. They smelled good, too, and the texture was frequently compared to pineapple. 

During the week, the Beginners also worked on pattern recognition and continuation, as well as Letter identification and scissor handling through fun games and activities. Who knew pumpkins could teach us so much?