We survived the craziness that is Halloween this week! Yes, students were beyond excited. Yes, they wore fun emoji hand painted plates to celebrate emoji day. And yes, I knew I needed a well thought out game plan to get us through the day. What’s a teacher to do? Well, after talking with my third grade teammates I had a plan.
Pumpkins.
What could be more fun than some hands on learning with pumpkins? We could weigh them, measure them, float them, describe them, and best of all, cut them open and count the number of seeds. My teammates had been doing this for several years and talked about how it was a highlight with the kids. I was in!
Students were thrilled to work together as a group analyzing their group’s pumpkins. Counting the number of lines, wrapping measuring tape around them and recording results, there was an excited buzz of activity around the room.
But the two highlights of the day were making predictions of if the pumpkins would sink or float and sticking their hands inside the pumpkins to grab handfuls of seeds to count. Messy and fun, what’s not to love?!
It was such a wonderful day with pumpkins! Watching students eagerly work together, get their hands dirty, use math skills and writing skills all in an authentic way was magical. Students who can be a bit timid during math, who doubt their own skills, were jumping up to write on the white board to help add their groups total number of seeds. Students came up with organized systems of counting and recording how many seeds were in the pumpkin. Then they used their senses to give detailed descriptions of their pumpkins. They were talking, working productively and eager to share with each new discovery. What a wonderful way to spend Halloween at school!
Katy
