Pumpkin Carving

Today we set aside the afternoon to carve our Pumpkin. After initially resenting the fact that I had paid $20 for this pumpkin, the learning that took place with this activity was worth every dollar! Such an amazing opportunity to use lots of descriptive words: orange, heavy, big, small, oozy, slimy. Master 4 has been very particular about the design that he wanted on the pumpkin (thankfully it wasn't too hard!) after we spent the weekend reading a number of Halloween related books.He planned his pumpkin face, talking about shapes and drawing it on a paper to plan. Before we started we weighed the pumpkin on our scales (8.4kgs ) and measured around the pumpkin using a tape measure. This brought about lots of mathematical language with Master 4.We discussed what we were going to do: measure, weigh, count. He was very excited when we weighed him and he realised that he weighs as much as two of our pumpkins!! So the three of us had great fun scooping out the inside of the pumpkin as it has a very distinct smell when cut open. Both boys enjoyed touching the rough exterior, helping to scrape the insides of the pumpkin, and collecting the slippery seeds. We roasted the pumpkin seeds to taste for afternoon tea along with a pumpkin faced sandwich I made the boys.

Activities that you can do with a pumpkin are:

• Cut different sized pieces of pumpkin and see if they sink or float?



• Weigh and measure your pumkin before and after you have scooped the contents out



• Weigh the contents of the pumkin



• Roast the seeds and talk about the change in texture before and after they are roasted



• Make Pumkin Soup, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Scones