Growing a Pumpkin

This is one of my absolutely favorite activities that I do as a teacher! I love it so much that I even do it at home with my kids. Each year it is just as fun and I learn something new every year. I should start out with a statement I usually tell my students, "I am not the best at science!", which I feel like over the years I am improving. My favorite subjects have always been reading and art. I love to read and I love teaching reading. I have always loved art because it is such an amazing way of getting your feelings out. In general, I do love almost every subject in school, which is one reason I decided to teach elementary. I get a little bit of everything. That being said, I have always felt like science was my worst subject. I'm guessing it starts with high school and having to do so many different sciences. It just never felt easy to me. I now understand that it's probably because I was a perfectionist and if it took too much time for it to make sense I just didn't like it. I wish back then I would have learned what I know now. If it doesn't make sense, I just haven't learned it yet. There are still many parts of science that baffle me and really confuse me beyond belief, however being able to dabble with the First grade curriculum has allowed me to appreciate science more. 

This is a unit of study that I created through my 12 years of teaching. It has morphed and changed so much along those 12 years. It really has been a long labor of love. The crazy thing is it all started with a pin I saw on pinterest 12 years. ago. It was a picture with just the caption of pumpkins growing in pumpkins. No instructions, no links, no anything! This picture really stuck in my head. I knew that we had to learn about plant and animal life cycles in First grade, I figured what a cool hands on way of doing this. Once I realized I could probably figure out ways to meet the standards I decided to just go for it. The first year I did this I honestly had ZERO idea if it would work. I figured if it didn't, it's just part of the life cycle. 

Lucky for me it did work, amazingly well. I had found other resources to use to record what we learned about pumpkins and decided a lapbook would be the best way to keep it organized. It was really me flying by the seat of my pants that year. I was very fortunate and have always had an amazing colleague that is more than willing to go with my crazy ideas and try out what I come up with. Together we planted pumpkins, watched them grow, and learned along the way. At the end of that first year we decided that it was such a fun activity and was something we wanted to try again so we sat down and decided to make our own materials to better fit what we need.

For the next 10 years we did this experiment, even through switching grades. We created this unit to be completed during the month of October. How our school is set up, we usually have more free time on Fridays. So Fridays were always pumpkin day. Not only would we do the pumpkin lapbook we created other pumpkin activities as well. We had art, math, reading and more science. This project became something that ALL the kids look forward to. The older students always come back to see the pumpkins and love to talk about their own. I have had student who are now in middle school come and tell me they still remember doing our pumpkin project. As a teacher, this all makes me so happy. Not only can they still tell me what they learned but they are still so excited by it. My main goals as a teacher are to make sure each student knows they are important, that each student knows I believe in them and that each student knows learning can be fun. I am so happy that one random pin showed up in front of me 12 years ago. 

In the lapbook file you will get all the pieces you need to create your own. I have also created videos that you can access for free on each of the sections. If you are unsure what is supposed to be done, are not clear on something, or maybe science isn't your thing, you can just play the video! I also wanted to make sure that everyone has access. It is such a fun experiment that can be done very easily!

If you want to try this experiment yourself, all you need is a pumpkin, a knife and some soil...oh and time, lots of time. To start all you will do is cut the top of the pumpkin off, like you're carving a pumpkin. Take the lid and throw it away. Once the lid is off, fill the pumpkin with soil. After that put some water in (you don't need a ton). Then all you do is wait... it takes about 12 days for the pumpkins to start sprouting. As long as you are taking care of it (watering and giving it light) you should see at least one sprout. You get to watch at the pumpkin becomes the pot for other pumpkins. When you're done you can bury the whole thing in the ground to create your own pumpkin patch! Let me know if you try this and how it goes for you! 

xo, Christina