Sunday, October 18, 2009

Autumn Nature Series: Pumpkins

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This is week 5 of the 10 part Autumn Nature Series.  I had dh pick up a pumpkin while he was out running errands with the boys.  Ds2 recently remarked that he missed our nature studies since starting public high school, so we did our pumpkin study this weekend so he could participate as well.  We finally had fall-like weather, too; sunny, cool and windy.

IMG_3589 IMG_3590 Everyone had a turn picking up the pumpkin and seeing how heavy it was.  Then we filled a tub with water and predicted whether it would sink or float…there were 3 votes for sink, 1 for float.

IMG_3593 It floated!  We then discussed why this happened and headed inside to check out the pumpkin’s innards. 

IMG_3603 Dh was in charge of pumpkin cutting.  Ds4 was the supervisor.

IMG_3611 Ds2 was in charge of the de-gutting.  I tried to get them to estimate how many seeds there would be and all I got was “5” from ds4 and “a lot” from ds2. 

IMG_3620 As usual, ds3 was not interested in sketching, so I had him fill out a “sink or float” prediction worksheet from kidssoup for his journal entry.

IMG_3621 Ds4 and I drew pumpkins and seeds for ours.  This was a fun study, and I know the boys all learned a little something.  Head over to Barb’s for more Outdoor Hour Challenges.

4 comments:

  1. Wow! That was a really big pumpkin!

    I love the nature journals....and the idea for a way to learn more about pumpkins. I *did not* know that they would float.

    Thanks for sharing your ideas and your entry,
    Barb-Harmony Art Mom

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  2. This looks like so much fun! We'll be doing ours later this week.

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  3. I love the journal drawing. My kids and I just got back to our journals and we've been enjoying them in this wonderful fall weather!

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