Pumpkin Fun!!

I like to do something with pumpkins every year around Halloween.  We always go to the pumpkin patch, so I make sure to get a pumpkin for myself to use in class.  We studied apples the week before, so we did a little comparison to start off the week.  They had a few more ideas, but we ran out of time.  The kiddos completed their own Venn Diagram after we did this one as a class.

Last year we did Pumpkin Math and More, where each student had their own little book to complete.  Since I have kids two years in a row I wanted to switch it up a little bit.  We explored our pumpkin together and made a chart to record the results.  Some of their predictions were way off.  We need to work on our estimation skills!

I live in an apartment in San Francisco, so carving a pumpkin isn't really my thing.  There is nowhere for me to display it, and it would just smell up the apartment if kept inside.  For this reason, I make use of the class pumpkin in a different way, baking it!  Each year I take my pumpkin home and bake it to make pumpkin puree.  I let my kiddos vote on what kind of pumpkin treat to make.  Believe it or not, they chose pumpkin pie!  I was amazed, considering pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin bread with chocolate chips were on the list!

Today we put the pumpkin to use and mixed up the pumpkin pie.

Unfortunately, with all the craziness of kids in costume on Halloween, we didn't get a chance to taste it yet!  I put it in the fridge for tasting on Monday.   The kids will have to wait!

They did get a chance to eat some pumpkin seeds though!  I let them pull the seeds out of the pumpkin during class.  We count them, and then I take them home to roast in the oven.  A lot of the kiddos had never had pumpkin seeds before, but they all liked them!  I am looking forward to seeing what they think about the homemade pumpkin pie.