Last week, Golden Hill Elementary turned into a pumpkin patch! Donated from S&SO Produce Farms, pumpkins were spread over the entirety of Golden Hill’s front lawn. 

All 299 students at Golden Hill were able to pick out their perfect pumpkin and take it home. After this annual event, there are always pumpkins left over. Teacher Tim Healy stepped in to ensure no pumpkins were wasted!

“We rely on the generosity of the PTA to bring the pumpkin patch each year and we like to make use of the leftover pumpkins,” said Healy “It allows our classes to get their hands dirty in some real world science.”

Students were tasked to work with their partner to guess an accurate weight for their pumpkin. Healy held up a pumpkin before they began and let them know that his pumpkin weighed in at 3.4 pounds. 

Using that information, they compared their pumpkin to Healy’s example and chose a weight that would be too high, a weight that would be too low, and ultimately a “just right” weight. 

Fourth graders came in to partner with the second graders as they are Golden Hill’s in-house pumpkin experts! Being the first students to complete this assignment two years ago, fourth graders provided guidance throughout the lesson. 

Students practiced making reasonable estimates when guessing the weight of their pumpkin. “It is why we use ‘too low’ and ‘too high’ numbers,” said Healy. “We try to narrow it down to numbers that are more reasonable than zero for too low or one million for too high.  It also helps us work with our skip counting giving students a practical reason to use skip counting instead of just doing it on a worksheet.” 

After guessing their pumpkin’s weight, they were tasked with guessing how many seeds were inside of their pumpkin. As second grader Jayden Lawrence filled out her guesses, she used visual clues that the students learned from the book “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” by Margaret McNamara to get the most accurate numbers possible. 

“My pumpkin was small, so it has more seeds,” Lawrence shared. “I also counted the ridges and thought maybe there were 20 seeds per ridge and guessed that way.”

Pumpkins in tow, the students went outside to scoop the seeds of their pumpkin out, saving them for the following day where they would use skip counting to count all the seeds. 

“I thought it was fun to do,” said Lawrence. “But everything we do is fun!