zimmerToddler: Unexpected Pumpkin Exploration

One autumn morning a friend brought a pumpkin to school. "This is my pumpkin." We have been learning about autumn for a while and what else makes you think autumn like a round, orange pumpkin? The pumpkin was a great conversation piece in our class not to mention a wonderful sensory experience. Add a few good open ended questions and we found much more than just seeds inside of this pumpkin experience.

So what do we know about pumpkins?

"Pumpkins are orange and round." "This pumpkin is heavy." "When I went to the ice cream store with my mommy I saw a pumpkin there." "I have a pumpkin at home, it's on the stairs." "I go to a pumpkin patch and I saw a LOT of pumpkins there. Pumpkins grow on the ground and they was dirty, we has to clean them." "I see a pumpkin and it was HUGE!" "I don't have a big pumpkin I have a little, tiny pumpkin." "This pumpkins is not huge."

What do you think is inside of the pumpkin?

"Open it!" "I don't know." "My daddy, he open a pumpkin and I see there is SEEDS inside!" "Can we open this pumpkin ?" "Can I open it?" "No the pumpkin is too hard." "We need a knife."

Do you think there are seeds inside of this pumpkin?

"YES!" "I want to see the seeds!" "We going to open the pumpkin!" "Be careful Morah." "The knife is sharp, you can get a boo boo." "I don't touch the knife, only Morah can touch the knife."

"What is it?" "Wow LOOK there's seeds!" "So many!" "What are we going to do now?" "Can I touch it?"

"Lets take it out!" "Can we do that?" "Yes?" "I want to do that." "There's more seeds!" "What's that?" "It's pumpkin?" "Orange, squishy pumpkin!?" Giggles, giggles, giggles....

"It's squishy." "It's wet." "It's yucky-squishy, I don't want to touch it." "I want to touch it." "It's squishy orange." "I like pumpkin." "Can I eat it?" "It's food?" "No, you have to cook it first, right Morah?"