Pumpkin Picking Time

 Pumpkins are native to the American continent and were first cultivated by Native Americans over 5000 years ago, long before Columbus and the European colonists arrived. To the Native Americans in the eastern United States, pumpkins almost equaled corn and beans in food importance. All parts of the pumpkin were used. The "flesh" was baked or boiled and the seeds were ground into meal for gruel or bread. They have been used for food, as symbols and even toys since before recorded history.

Pumpkins and other members of the Cucurbit or gourd family are delicious and nutritious and are relatively easy to grow. The European settlers, especially the Irish, helped to make this bright orange fruit popular during Halloween, when they adapted the tale of Stingy Jack and his turnip to use a pumpkin instead of a turnip and the jack-o-lantern was born.
 

Some other reasons to study pumpkins are because:

• the season makes pumpkins readily available.
• the children are already interested in pumpkins because of jack-o-lanterns, so we are grasping a teachable moment.
• third graders can learn about plant reproduction and growing conditions.

Grade Level and Time Frame: This unit is designed for third grade and will take about two weeks to complete.

Buy Pumpkins by pattirm1

The students will:

• demonstrate creative writing skills.
• demonstrate knowledge and appreciation of folklore.
• create an alliteration.

Activities

• The children can create alliterations using the letter "P". Use the tongue twister "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers" as an example. They can locate words beginning with "P" in the dictionary.


• A listening center can be stocked with stories and folklore dealing with squash and pumpkins. Short stories can be found in Pellowski's, Hidden Stories in Plants.


• Creative writing activity: "Pumpkins can be used in many ways. Write about an unusual pumpkin recipe or an unusual way to use pumpkins."


• Small groups can visit the library to research the origin of the jack-o-lantern and also the origin and cultivation of the pumpkin.

The students will:

• explain how flowering plants reproduce.
• recognize good growing conditions for plants.
• identify vegetables grown in truck farms.

Activities

• The students can go on a field trip to a truck farm to see first hand the cultivation and growing stages of vegetables.


• Pumpkins are very high in Beta Carotene. A small group can research other vegetables and plants that are in the same food group and are high in Beta Carotene.


• Children can plant a pumpkin seed in a small pot. Each child will record the plant's growth rate and characteristics on a time line.


• Small groups can visit the library to research the reproduction of flowering plants, and especially the pumpkin and squash family.

The Pumpkin Field Print by hallocards

One time there was a pumpkin,
And all the summer through
It stayed upon a big green vine,
And grew, and grew, and grew!

It grew from being small and green
To being big and yellow
And then it said unto itself,
"Now I'm a handsome fellow!"

And then one day it grew a mouth,
A nose, and two big eyes!
And so that pumpkin grew into
A jack-o'-lantern wise!

Cut out some pumpkin shapes and vines from flannel and this poem makes a cute and educational (growth of a pumpkin) flannel board story for younger children.

The students will:

• estimate circumference and weight.
• measure circumference and weight.
• chart and compare weight and circumference
• measure ingredients for cooking.

Activities

• The children can do estimation activities with a pumpkin. Estimations can be made of the weight, circumference, and number of seeds. Then the actual measurements can be taken and compared when the jack-o-lantern is cut. The person with the closest estimate can take the jack-o-lantern home.


• A cooking activity can provide opportunities for the children to measure in cups, tablespoons and teaspoons. Pumpkin bread is a good, healthy thing to make.

Recipe for Pumpkin Bread
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canned or cooked pumpkin
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (if desired)
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

With an electric mix, beat eggs and sugar well. Add pumpkin, oil and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Add to pumpkin mixture and blend. Fold in pecans. Divide mixture into two well-greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour (this dough freezes well). Yield: 2 loaves.
Pumpkin bread is delicious sliced thin and spread with softened cream cheese or butter.
This recipe was made available by the Energy Advisors Committee of LA Power & Light. (circa 1980's)

If you want to make a pumpkin pie as a reward for the children at the end of the unit, I have a delicious pumpkin pie recipe on our Louisiana Holiday Feast lens.

Buy The Big Pumpkin Print by hallocards

The students will:

• locate growing regions on a map.
• identify the tribes and customs of Native Americans who farmed.

Activities

• A small group can visit the library or use the Internet to research the states and regions that grow pumpkins. Encyclopedias, atlases and almanacs may yield information on the growing conditions most suitable for pumpkin farming.


• Another small group can visit the library or use the Internet to research the tribes of Native Americans that grew pumpkins and squash. Their location can be mapped and their customs and lifestyle noted.

Buy Pumpkin Blossom by charlesblack7

The students will:

• use an atlas.
• take notes from trade books.
• locate information in the Guinness Book of World Records.
• read and record information on charts.
• look up words in a dictionary.
• appreciate literature on their own level.

Activities

Center 1

Skill: Estimation, index, and note-taking

Two real pumpkins (1 small and 1 medium) will be provided. Students will estimate the weight and circumference of the 2 and record their guesses on a chart.
Then they will look for the "record" for the largest pumpkin in The Guinness Book of World Records".

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Sample Work Sheet


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Center 2

Skill: Table of Contents and Note-taking

Students will follow the directions on task cards to locate and read a Chapter in a trade book that has been preselected. Make copies of the task card and fill in the blanks for each book that you have chosen. They will be instructed to write 5 words about the subject and then write down all they know about the subject using the 5 words.

Choose informational books with chapters like: Deanna F. Cook's, Kids' Pumpkin Projects, Edna Barth's, Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts The Story of the Halloween Symbols, Marjorie Waters', The Victory Garden Kids' Book and/or Jennifer Storey Gillis', In a Pumpkin Shell.

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Sample Task Card


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Center 3

Skill: Dictionary Use and Writing

The students will use the dictionary to help them write alliterations that begin with the letter "P".

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Sample Task Card:

An alliteration is a poem or sentence in which almost all of the words start with the same letter.

Example:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?

Directions:
Use the letter "P" to make your own alliteration. You may use the "P" section of the dictionary to help you find "P" words.

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Center 4

Skill: Mapping, reading for information and note-taking

The students will draw their impression of what the inside of a "pumpkin house" would look like.
When finished, they will find the dimensions (weight and circumference) for the current record pumpkin, using a current newspaper article or Wikipedia.

Center 5

Skill: Plant reproduction and cultivation and folklore

The students will listen to any of the books and audio below or also to some folktales from Hidden Stories in Plants.

Art, Music, and Drama

• After reading Mousekin's Golden House, Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, or Perky Pumpkin's Open House Surprise, the children can draw what the inside of a "pumpkin house" would look like.


• The children can participate in a "Design the Jack-o-lantern's Face" contest. The best design will be carved on the pumpkin.


• Various poems and finger plays can provide role-playing and dramatic experiences for the children.


• The music teacher can provide pumpkin and jack-o-lantern songs during the weekly music lesson.

Physical Education

• A game similar to thimble, thimble, who has the thimble? can be played with a tiny paper pumpkin. The refrain is, "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Who has the pumpkin?"
• Native American games from the Pueblo and other farming tribes can be played by the children.

I wish I had a garden,
   Where the warm sun brightly shines.
I'd plant each nook and corner
   With jack-o'-lantern vines.

Then, from my little garden
   I'd pick for Halloween
More golden jack-o'-lanterns
   Than you have ever seen.

Of course, I'd choose the biggest,
   The one that's brightest gold,
To peep in at your window--
   Oh, there, I almost told!

Buy In the Pumpkin Patch by AnnMorash

You may not believe it, for hardly could I:
I was cutting a pumpkin to put in a pie,
And on it was written in letters most plain
"You may hack me in slices, but I'll grow again."

I seized it and sliced it and made no mistake
As, with dough rounded over, I put it to bake:
But soon in the garden as I chanced to walk,
Why, there was that pumpkin entire on his stalk!

Pumpkin Time by deegolden

Billy brought a pumpkin in
And Mother scaped it out.
Daddy carved a little mouth
With such a funny pout.

Sally cut some crooked eyes
And trimmed the thing with beads,
While everybody laughed at me
Because I saved the seeds.

But I will plant them in the spring
And wait till fall, and then--
I'll have at least a hundred
Jack-o'-lantern men!

pumpkins by dma847

pumpkinstack by blacqbook