Pumpkins and Place Value
Ranked #2,491 in Education, #58,909 overall
Understanding Tens, Hundreds and Beyond
Pick the biggest pumpkin you can find. Cut off the top and smell the fresh pumpkin smell. Carving a Jack O'Lantern leads to a mathematical unit study of place value that incorporates all five senses.
Counting pumpkin seeds into groups of 10's, 100's etc. helps children understand our decimal system and prepares them in a concrete way to understand higher level math.
Scoop out those seeds, roast them if you like and count your way to a concrete understanding of place value.
Photo Credit: Smell the Pumpkin by Jerry
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Place Value Table of Contents
Observing Pumpkins
Pumpkin Poem
Farmer's Strong, Work Toughened Hands Planting in the Garden
Available at Allposters
As a child I helped my father drop seeds into the hills of garden dirt mixed with just enough compost to feed the growing pumpkin plants.
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Seedlings on Flickr, Creative Commons
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Blossom on Flickr, Creative Commons
I watched the seeds sprout, the vines twine around and spread out. The yellow blossoms opened up for the bees and then died off to reveal the small green baby pumpkins.
Photo Credit: Green Pumpkin
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Later I helped my mom make pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin pudding. We even added pumpkin to spaghetti sauce.
Pumpkin Pie
Available at Allposters
My favorite day was the day my dad would bring the biggest pumpkin up onto the porch to carve into a Jack-o-lantern.
Boy and Girl with Pumpkin
Available at Allposters
But I never observed a pumpkin so well as the day I helped my students count the pumpkin seeds.
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
Picture Books that Explain Place Value
Counting the seeds is one of my favorite ways to explore place value. During the week before we will be counting seeds I ask parents to send in a pumpkin. I introduce the Pumpkin Theme by reading From Seed to Pumpkin
in order to learn about the life cycle of the pumpkin.
Photo Credit: Pumpkins in a Blue Wagon
Used under creative commons
When all of the pumpkins have been brought in we put them in order from smallest to largest and then estimate the number of seeds in each pumpkin.
Estimating the number of seeds in the pumpkin.
Photo Credit: Jack O' Lantern
on WPClipart
Pick a pumpkin for carving and counting seeds.
1. Each child writes an estimate for the number of seeds they think are in the pumpkin.
2. Attach estimates above the number line.
To better understand estimation it is important to repeat the process several times so carving, cutting and counting a pumpkin should be done in groups of 3 or 4 children leaving enough pumpkins for several days.
\\
EDUPRESS ORANGE PUMPKIN SHAPE BOOK
Amazon Price: $1.99 (as of 05/27/2012)
This pumpkin book is a good place for students to record Halloween spelling words for spirited drill-and-practice activities at home or school.
Cut off the Top of the Pumpkin
Use all Five Senses
Photo Credit: Carve the Pumpkin on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Photo Credit: Smell the Pumpkin on Flickr, Creative Commons.
1. Listen to the squeaky sound as the top is cut off. Cutting into a pumpkin is difficult and the knife is wedged in tightly, causing vibrations which cause the sound you hear.
2. Cut off the top and look inside. Notice how each fiber leads to a seed.
3. Can you smell the pumpkin? Does it smell the same as pumpkin pie?
4. Does the outside of the pumpkin feel dry or moist? How does the inside feel? Do you see beads of moisture forming where you cut off the top?
Photo Credit: Carve a Pumpkin
on Flickr, Creative Commons
5. Use your fingers to pull out all the seeds; separating them from the fibers or strings as you go. Spread the seeds out on a tray and dry them or roast them in a warm oven.
6. Use a large spoon to scrape our the strings. It is safe to taste the strings. Do they taste the way you would expect? Do they taste like pumpkin pie?
7. Do you think your estimate was lower or higher than the number you recorded? Write down your new estimate.
Scoop Out the Pumpkin Seeds
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Seeds
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Using a spoon or fingers scoop out all of the seeds and spread them out on a newspaper or paper towels to dry.
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Seeds
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Pumpkin Seed Counting Mats
For each group of children:
1. ONES: On a small Orange Paper Plate
use a permanent marker to draw 10 seeds.2. TENS: Take 10 orange Gatorade covers and hotglue green felt or plastic stems on them for decoration.
3. HUNDREDS: Get 10 small plastic pumpkins
used for party favors.4. Get 1 large plastic pumpkin used for Trick or Treating.
5. On a poster board draw a diagram of the Place Values for ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. Draw outlines for each of the containers and write the words for each of the places above the spaces for the containers.
Children put one seed on each seed on the orange plate. When there is a seed on each spot on the orange plate transfer it to a Gatorade cap.
When all Gatorade caps are full transfer them to a small pumpkin.
When all small pumpkins are full transfer them to the large pumpkin.
When all the seeds have been places on the mats it's time to write the numbers on the Place Valve Worksheet.
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Seeds
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Younger children may need to glue the seeds on and count only up to 30 or 50 after carving very small pumpkins.
- RaisingOurKids.com - Free Printable Halloween Coloring Pages
- RaisingOurKids.com - Free Printable Halloween Coloring Pages
- Printable Worksheet: Place Value Chart
- Use these Place Value Worksheets for keeping numbers in the right columns.
- Math Tub Fun
- Hands-On Place Value Activities
Writing the Numbers on the Place Value Worksheet
Now count the number of seeds that did not make a complete set of 10 and write that number in the ones column.Count the number of left over Gatorade caps and write that digit in the tens column.
Then count the number of small pumpkins with seeds and write that digit in the hundreds column.
Photo Credit: Chart Created by Evelyn Saenz
Finally count the number of large pumpkins, if any, and write that number in the thousands column.
Now you know how many seeds were in the pumpkin.
Compare the exact number with your estimates.
Pumpkin Containers
Photo Credit: Place Value
on Flickr, Creative Commons
1. Put one seed at a time on the plastic orange plate.
2. Ten pumpkin seeds go in a small plastic pumpkin.
3. Ten small plastic pumpkins go in the large plastic pumpkin.
Count the Pumpkins in the pumpkin Patch
Make a stack of pumpkin shaped cardstock cutouts. Write two digit numbers on the pumpkins. On the back draw the pumpkins for self checking.
Each child or pair of children needs a pumpkin Patch Mat, some Pumpkin Cards, 9 Pumpkin Erasers and 9 pumpkin seeds. Erasers are worth 10 seeds.
Children show the number of pumpkins growing in the field using Erasers and Seeds.
Pumpkin Seed Math Books
Counting pumpkin seeds,
Oh what fun!
How many seed inside this big one?
Find all the members of the nine family using pumpkin seeds as math manipulatives.
- Pumpkin Seed Math Books
- Pumpkin seed counting ideas from Kim's Kindergarten class.
Books for Teachers about Place Value
Help you to teach Place Value
The idea for counting pumpkin seeds, from the Mathematics Their Way program, was one of the first hands-on lessons I taught and it is still one of my favorites. I was substituting in a classroom in central Vermont where small classes and cooperation allowed the first and second grade teachers to collaborate on innovative ideas. The teacher brought a large pumpkin into the classroom and the math class began. We estimated the circumference and weight, graphed the estimations and then guessed the number of pumpkin seeds that the pumpkin would contain.
Finally we were allowed to cut off the top and begin counting. We counted ten pumpkin seeds by placing one seed at a time on a laminated
sheet of paper or math mat with nine small circles, one for each pumpkin seed. When each of the circles was filled and the next one had no place to go, we slid all of them off into a paper cup. Nine paper cups were provided with a small plastic pumpkin off to the left and ten cups full of pumpkin seeds were dumped into it.We discussed place value and soon learned the number of pumpkin seeds found in the pumpkin. The children were told that they would be carving and counting pumpkins all week and that they would discover that their estimations would become more and more accurate.
How did you come to understand Place Value?
Maybe you still don't understand it. For me it wasn't until I was doing my Student Teaching and I worked with a wonderful teacher who was beginning to use the Math Their Way method of teaching.
As I helped the children make groups of ten objects and group those ten objects to make hundreds it all started to make sense. The numbers were no longer just numbers on paper. They now had meaning.
This need to understand the significance of each digit becomes important as children begin to learn to multiply and divide large numbers.
Photo Credit: Pumpkin's Progress! (Mystery solved!)
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
How did you learn Place Value?
Numbers written on paper and pencil
akumar46 says:
Great idea of learning place value.
SmBizGuru says:
I love this idea to turn pumpkins into a teaching tool. Did you know that pumpkins seeds are a very healthy edible snack? Don't tell the kids until the counting is done. :) Take a look at my All about the Pumpkin lens to find out how healthy and get your recipe http://www.squidoo.com/all-about-the-pumpkin
jptanabe says:
Well, I have no memory of learning it at all - in fact I don't think I ever learned that term! I know it wasn't with pumpkin seeds though, because I never saw a pumpkin till I was an adult (we used to carve turnips and they don't have seeds!).
Teddi14 says:
I really don't remember how I learned place value.
Joan4 says:
I have no idea! Way back in the olden days, we did not even use that term. We simply learned math. Period! I love the new ways of teaching concepts first!
Bundling objects together
Frischy says:
We had some little colored sticks. I think we used these to learn place value, but I am not sure. It was an awfully long time ago.
KimGiancaterino says:
I still have a compulsion to count items I see, especially things that are grouped together.
Mickie_G says:
Probably when a child and on paper and pencil, but I am sure I never understood it then. I really began understand mathematics when I became a Montessori teacher and used the golden beads.
groovyoldlady says:
Oh come on. I'm SO old. I don't remember how I learned place value! Did they teach that back in the cave?
However, my older kids learned it by using "found" manipulatives: buttons, pennies, cut-outs, pictures, blocks...whatever.
My younger kids learned the concept formally with purchased math manipulatives and the ever fun "Decimal Street" advocated by MathUSee plus all of the above and some fun computer games.
Mortira says:
Our class room had blocks that were attached together in groups of 1, 10 and 100. We could count rows and combine differnt blocks to create numbers.
Counting Pumpkin Seeds to 10
Counting Pumpkin Seeds
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Math
on Flickr, Creative Commons
Children can use pumpkin seeds to show the value of a number or the answer to a math problem.
- Once I had a Pumpkin
- Dr. Jean's Pumpkin Page
- Pumpkin Seed Count
- Estimating, Grouping and Counting Seeds
Pass the Pumpkin
Pumpkin Seed Place Value
Plastic Pumpkin
Available on Amazon
Program pumpkin cutouts with numbers between 0 and 99.
1. Pass the pumpkin while playing music.
2. When the music stops the child holding the pumpkin takes out a pumpkin card, reads the number and shows it's value by setting out the correct number of small plastic pumpkins (tens) and seeds (ones).
Variation: Once the group understands how to play this game it can be played in small groups of 3 or 4 at the same time.
Note:Make sure that the groups are of mixed abilities and that everyone gets a chance to show the number values.
Ten Little Pumpkins
Russell, Mary...
Buy at AllPosters.com
Here is a song to help little pumpkin counters count the ten seeds that go into the small plastic pumpkins.
Ten Little Pumpkins
(tune of Ten Little Indians)
One little, two little, three little pumpkins.
Four little, five little, six little pumpkins.
Seven little, eight little, nine little pumpkins.
Ten little pumpkins growing in a patch.
Ten little, nine little, eight little pumpkins.
Seven little, six little, five little pumpkins,
Four little, three little, two little pumpkins.
One little pumpkin growing in a patch.
If you're going to try making ten of these cute little Lego Pumpkins you are going to have to collect lots of orange Legos. Here are the directions and quantities to make one:
Lego Pumpkin
Available on Amazon
How many orange Lego bricks would it take to make ten pumpkins?
- LEGO Halloween
- Directions for building a 3-D pumpkin.
More Pumpkin Math Activities
Photo Credit: Jack 'o lantern Wearing Hat
Used under creative commons
The face of a Jack-o-lantern is usually made of geometric shapes.
- Mrs.Mumpower
- How many Unifix cubes high is your pumpkin?
- Pumpkin Math
- Pumpkin Math Worksheet
- Pumpkin Seed Count -- Acitivites
- Pumpkin Worksheets and Activities
More great Math Activities can be founed at:
Sliced Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seeds (Cucurbita Sp) Europe
by Reinhard
Available on Allposters
Pumpkin Crafts
Photo Credit: Mosaic Pumpkin
Used under creative commons
- Pumpkin Seed Mosaic - Sculpture - KinderArt
- Free sculpture and collage lesson plans for kids, parents, teachers and homeschoolers
- Paper Plate Pumpkins
- The pumpkin craft invites ideas of counting pumpkin seeds, adding lines to separate numbers of seeds, or writing pumpkin patch stories that could be hidden inside.
Pumpkin Calendar Pattern
Make a pattern with pumpkins, leaves and apples for your calendar.Each day you slip in the next number and guess the pattern as each day's picture is revealed.
Math is all about recognizing patterns. With practice in creating and recognizing patterns children begin to develop number sense.
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Chart
Available on Amazon
Pumpkin Number Line
Make a number line adding a number each day. Write the numbers 1-9 on each of the and the number 10 on the large pumpkin. Continue on for the rest of the month or until you get to as high a number as your children are learning to count to.
Number lines help children visualize the meaning of Place Value.
Activities to add to your Pumpkin Literacy Bag
- Pumpkin Concentration
- Color, label and laminate the pumpkin cards. They could be labeled with Word Wall Words, Pumpkin Theme words, or words used for Place Value such as tens, ones or hundreds.
Teaching about Pumpkins
Pumpkin Literacy Bag
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Bag by tiffa130
Used under creative commons
Books and activities for the Pumpkin Literacy Bag.
Pumpkin Literacy Bag
Literacy bags encourage children to share their learning with their families. I include both a fiction and a non-fiction book about pumpkins, some pumpkin seeds in a Ziploc bag, and a few small plastic pumpkins.I also include a a Teddy Bear with a pumpkin sweater and his journal so that the children can record the adventures of Pumpkinseed Bear while visiting their home.
Photo Credit: Pumpkinseed Bear
Available on Amazon
Pumpkinseed Bear and Literacy Bag
Pumpkin Bag
Available on Amazon
Items for the Pumpkin Literacy Bag which extend learning from the classroom into the home and between families.
Place Value and Pumpkins
- NEA: Predicting Pumpkins
- Is there a relationship between a pumpkin's size and the number of seeds it contains?
- In the Heart of my Home: Gnomes, gnumbers, place value and pumpkins
- A lesson in place value
- Predicting Pumpkins Worksheet
- Make a Prediction
- Pumpkin Math
- Counting Pumpkin Seeds
Place Value beyond the Pumpkins
Photo Credit: Pumpkins
on WikiCommons.
After all the pumpkins have been gathered and the seeds have been counted, what can you do to continue learning Place Value concepts?
From daily calendar count to I have, Who has card games the learning fun never ends.
Photo Credit: Place Value Pocket Chart
Photo Credit: Place Value Game by g_kat26 Used under creative commons
- Activities : Play Placemat Place Value
- Ordinary drinking straws are fun for drinking juice and even for spitballs when you're not looking, but also fabulous for learning first grade math.
- Mathwire.com | Place Value Activities
- Place Value Practice: School Day Count Routine
Students need many different activities to develop a conceptual understanding of our base-ten number system. - Math on a Roll
- Build skills in place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication, and more with these easy dice games
Place Value Educational Materials
More Pumpkin Ideas
- Pumpkin Unit - Mrs. Nelson's Class
- Contains classroom photos, thematic teaching ideas for throughout the year, and resources for teaching reading, writing, and math.
- Welcome to the Pumpkin Patch
- Weigh a pumpkin. After scooping out the seeds and pulp, weigh the pumpkin again and compare the two weights.
- Counting Pumpkins by 10's Book
- Pictures of tens of pumpkins with very simple text. Ebook or pdf format.
- Easy Pumpkin Song for Kids
- Five Little Pumpkins
Language Focus: Emotions and actions ("Smiling", "Happy", "Pouting", "Grumpy", "Yawning", "Sleepy", "Crying", "Sad", "Laughing", "Playing - Using Pumpkin Seeds as Math Manipulatives
- Background:
Pilgrims and other early American settlers made the first pumpkin pies by burying pumpkin in the ashes of their fires.
After a pumpkin had cooked, they would cut off the top, scrape out the pulp and add honey or maple syrup. The pulp was then made into delicious pies and breads.
Pumpkins were used for many different things. Dried pumpkin shells served as bowls or containers for storing grains and seeds. Pumpkin seeds were dried and roasted
for a high-energy treat.
More Ideas for Teaching Place Value
- How to Use Montessori Counting Chains to Teach Large Numbers
- How to Use Montessori Counting Chains to Teach Large Numbers. Montessori counting chains are long chains of beads that are designed to help children visualize and count large numbers. They can be purchased in sets or built using Montessori golden bead ten bars. ...
Using Frog Spawn to Teach Place Value
Frog Egg Math Workjobs and Centers
Show place value with clusters and strings:
Going beyond Tens and Ones
Place Value into the Billions
Pumpkin and Place Value Lapbooks
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Lapbook by Lilliput Station
Used by permission
Click on the Lilliput's Lapbook above to go to the free downloadable file.
- Pumpkin Lapbook
- Pictures of a Pumpkin Lapbook along with links to the items used to create it.
- Pumpkin Lapbook for Toddlers
- Velcro is used to stick and restick pumpkins from the 5 Little Pumpkins rhyme onto the fence.
- Thanksgiving Pumpkin Lapbook
- The pocket has "Peter Pumpkin Eater" with puppets for play.
- Lilliput Station Adventures
- The above Pumpkin Lapbook is from Lilliput Station Adventures.
Downloadable Pumpkin Stories
After you took out all the pumpkin seeds and counted them, did you carve a funny or a scary Jack-O-Lantern?On a pumpkin shaped paper draw the face that you carved into your pumpkin and at the bottom write the number of seeds you counted. Carefully checking the place value of the numbers, put your pumpkin in order.
Now it's time for a great pumpkin story:
The ugliest pumpkin in the patch becomes the scariest Halloween pumpkin. pumpkin.
Photo Credit:The Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin
Available on Amazon
- The Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin
- Download this book to your Mp3 player or iPhone and your child can have a story read to him or her no matter how busy you are.
More Educational Lenses with a Fall Theme
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Row
Available on Zazzle
Place Value in the News!
Unifix Cubes
Available on Amazon
- X=Why?
- Math for kids of all abilities - with Michael Alison Chandler
The group of mostly 6-year-olds were learning about place value by playing with little plastic or foam cubes. To represent the number 26 they made two "towers of 10" or built two stacks of 10 cubes, and then added six individual cubes.
Pumpkins and Place Value is in the Unit Study Directory
Thank you to the Four Wheelers for having included the Pumpkins and Place Value in their directory. This directory has now been passed on to Stone Soup Homeschooling.
- Unit Studies: Stone Soup Homeschool Network - Stone Soup Homeschool Network
- Stone Soup Homeschool Network Ages and Stages We are very excited to be entrusted with this rather comprehensive Unit Study Database. It was started many years ago, and maintained for the last decade by the Wheelers
Look Who's Twittering about Place Value
Teaching Math Facebook Fanpage
Spread the Word: Math is Fun!
Facebook Fan box widget may not always appear in the Workshop. Please preview or publish your lens to see the widget.
Follow EvelynSaenz on Twitter
Pumpkins and Place Value Talk
Did you gain a better understanding of Place Value and the role of manipulatives?
Photo Credit: Pumpkin Writing
on Flickr, Creative Commons
Have you ever counted all the seeds in a pumpkin? How many seeds do you think you will find?
-
-
poutine
Oct 19, 2011 @ 6:13 am | delete
- I never did count seeds in a pumpkin. I wish you had been my teacher when I was a child.
-
-
-
---Chazz
Oct 2, 2011 @ 12:29 pm | delete
- Fantastic lessons here. Blessed on the Squidangel Halloween quest.
-
-
-
NaturalVamp
Sep 30, 2011 @ 3:13 am | delete
- I surely enjoyed the story at the beginning of your lens dahling as it reminded me of my father and he also growing pumpkins in the backyard.
-
-
-
LTPParents
Sep 8, 2011 @ 10:48 am | delete
- Evelyn, I wish I had you as a resource when I was a preschool teacher. These ideas are so simple yet so creative. I love all of your lenses.
-
-
-
reasonablerobinson
May 29, 2011 @ 7:05 am | delete
- brilliant to use maths to explain the world about us...wish you'd taught me math(s) !
-
-
-
akumar46
May 20, 2011 @ 1:19 am | delete
- Wow ! Pumpkins used for counting place value....Great.....
-
-
-
thesuccess
Sep 21, 2010 @ 1:02 pm | delete
- Just love Pumpkins
-
-
-
Brook_Drew
Aug 11, 2010 @ 9:08 am | delete
- Hello, I would like to show you great site with many free online math games for kids.
For Place Value Games: 2nd grade place value games
for the main site: math games
-
-
-
WeddingZazzle
Apr 14, 2010 @ 3:39 pm | delete
- Great lens! Blessed by a SquidAngel :)
-
-
-
aj2008
Apr 12, 2010 @ 12:43 pm | delete
- Yet another fabulous and imaginitive way to teach our children maths, Evelyn!
-
-
-
jptanabe
Apr 12, 2010 @ 12:31 pm | delete
- Goodness! I never knew there were so many things to do with a pumpkin!
-
-
-
JennySui
Nov 10, 2009 @ 11:27 am | delete
- You always amaze me with ur great ideas. I always wonder how you people manage to make such a big and creative lens.
-
-
-
hlkljgk Oct 27, 2009 @ 1:41 pm | delete
- you come up with such creative and fun learning ideas
-
-
-
debraanne
Oct 27, 2009 @ 6:19 am | delete
- Great way to integrate lessons with the real world.
-
-
-
Teddi14
Oct 20, 2009 @ 1:27 pm | delete
- You always have such great & helpful lenses. I am going to have to come back again and again!
-
-
-
JoyfulPamela
Oct 18, 2009 @ 6:05 am | delete
- This is adorable! Thank you again for incredible hands-on ideas.
Pamela :)
-
-
-
Evelyn_Saenz
Oct 18, 2009 @ 5:08 am | in reply to KimGiancaterino | delete
- Thank you SquidAngel.
-
-
-
KimGiancaterino Oct 16, 2009 @ 12:34 pm | delete
- Happy Halloween, Evelyn. You've been Boo-lessed by a Squid Angel.
-
-
-
Evelyn_Saenz
Oct 16, 2009 @ 12:00 pm | in reply to Joan4 | delete
- Thank you SquidAngel.
-
-
-
Joan4
Oct 16, 2009 @ 10:06 am | delete
- You always amaze me with your wonderful ideas, Evelyn! This is so extensive and such super illustrations! Blessed.
-
- Load More
Meet the Author
I was always good at math but hated it because the numbers didn't seem real. They were just scribbles on the page.
Then, after I graduated from college, I took a class in teaching math using manipulatives. As I felt the smooth wood of the Pattern Blocks and heard the musical sounds of Cuisenaire rods being dropped, math came alive for me.
Find out what else I'm up to:
Place Value and Pumpkins in the Kingdom
This site is a member of
Teacher Tidbits WebRing.
Powered by WebRing.
Come write about pumpkins and place value on Wizzley, a fun and easy place to express your opinion:
by Evelyn_Saenz
My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning... more »
- 255 featured lenses
- Winner of 26 trophies!
- Top lens » Frog Unit Study: Hopping to Learn
Explore related pages
- Skip Count, Skip Count, Count by Two's Skip Count, Skip Count, Count by Two's
- Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin Unit Study Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin Unit Study
- I Love Teaching Math I Love Teaching Math
- Natural Math Manipulatives Natural Math Manipulatives
- Frog Pattern Math Frog Pattern Math
- Alligator Math: Fun Activities Alligator Math: Fun Activities
Hands-on Learning Blog
Many More Math Ideas
More Math Fun
Fun Math
