The entranceway to Golden Hill was filled with pumpkins this October, thanks to the PTA pumpkin patch event. All students explored the patch and selected a pumpkin to bring home, donated by Daegle Farms and S&SO Produce.
But for second graders, the fun didn’t stop there!
With the remaining pumpkins, students completed a unique cross-curricular activity, engaging English, science and math themes.
Students first heard the story “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by G. Brian Karas.
“The book told us about how you can’t tell how many seeds are in the pumpkin based on its size,” shared Ella Kasparsons. “One thing that can help is seeing how many lines or curves are on the pumpkin. In the story, the smallest pumpkin had the most seeds.”
“One part of this lesson was helping them become estimators,” shared second grade teacher Tim Healy. “We started by estimating before reading the book. Most had small estimates. After the read aloud, their estimates increased.” In addition to learning about estimating, this taught students that in general, “once you learn more about a topic, you can make better decisions.”
After making their final estimates, it was time to get messy.
“We picked out the seed with our hands. It was really sticky!” shared Gabriella Brown. She shared that this was her favorite part of the activity.
After letting the seeds dry for a few days, the students began counting the seeds from their pumpkins.
“We could count by 2s 5s or 10s. I counted by 10s,” shared Madison Williams.
Conrad Olejniczak estimated that there would be 259 seeds in his pumpkin, and was surprised when there were 351.
The activity coincided with the science unit about the life cycle of a plant. Students also participated in a virtual field trip through Discovery Education to “a family farm where we learned the process of planting seeds, watering them and helping them grow,” shared Healy.
“The kids had a great time and worked very well individually. It was definitely a brave move by Mr. Healy and I to do 20+ pumpkins each in the classroom, but the kids were awesome!” shared second grade teacher Michael Hoyt.