Pumpkin Math Fun: How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
It’s that time of year again! Pumpkin Math time! This super engaging, hands-on, inquiry-based math activity is one of our favorites! I have a great book suggestion and a freebie for you!
We start by doing estimates with our pumpkins: How much does it weight? What is its circumference? How long is the pumpkin’s stem? How many seeds do you think are inside?
We record these on our sheets with a thin marker or crayon before we start. This helps with changing our estimates when we learn the real answer. 😉
Then, we start our pumpkin math investigations working on answering those questions.
We usually do pumpkin math in the cafeteria. We do have parent volunteers who come in to help with this activity. They are the ones in charge of helping cut off the tops and helping the kiddos to stay organized. It is a favorite volunteer activity!
Pumpkin Math Checklist:
- Pumpkins
- Butcher paper
- Tape Measures
- Rulers
- Scale
- Clipboards
- Markers or Crayons
- Pencils
- Strainers (to help clean the seeds when done)
- Scoopers (to scoop out the seeds)
- Knives or something to cut the tops off (Adult use only of course!)
We used butcher paper to make pumpkin math clean-up easier, but it also helps the kiddos to stay organized when they are counting their seeds. This group put their seeds into groups of 10, then circled each group!
Pumpkin Math Follow-Up Activities:
First, we read this amazing book by Margaret McNamara called How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin. It really goes perfectly with our day! In this story, Mr. Tiffin (the teacher) shows the class that good things come in small packages and helps the shortest kid in the class feel good about his size at the same time.
The students in the story count pumpkin seeds from three different-sized pumpkins to see which one holds the most!
If you don’t have the book and would like to get your own, you can find it here (this is an affiliate link):
The link above is an Amazon Affiliate link. If you would like to get your own copy you can click the link and go straight to Amazon. If you make a purchase from Amazon I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Of course, we all have to share our results. We put every group’s seed count on the board and we do greater than, less than, and we put them in order from greatest to least and least to greatest. If you are feeling really ambitious you can also do the difference between the greatest amount of seeds and the least amount of seeds. Then, we record our other data on the board (stem length, weight, circumference etc…) Then, in small groups, the kiddos compare their data with their classmates. This is a super fun day that all of my students always enjoy!
The last part of our Pumpkin Math day is roasting the pumpkin seeds! If you have an oven at school (or an air fryer) you can roast the pumpkin seeds at school. I either send them home with parent volunteers to roast at home, or I take them home to roast them. We have them for a fun snack when they are done! YUM!
Now, what you have been waiting for: The Pumpkin Math Freebie!
This is the sheet that we use for our pumpkin activities!
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Looking for more super fun October Activities? Look no further!
Happy Teaching!
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