Pumpkins and...Peduncles?

What IS a peduncle? Hint: it's not a name you call someone! A peduncle is actually another name for a pumpkin stem! Interesting, huh? This is just one of the fun facts we learned about pumpkins last week! The kids became scientists as they made detailed observations of the outside and inside of our class pumpkin! In math, we learned how to make estimations by estimating how many seeds we thought were inside our pumpkin. After exploring the inside of the pumpkin, the kids counted the seeds by putting them in piles of ten. We tasted real roasted pumpkin seeds then made a graph of who liked them! Check out our graph results below! We labeled the parts of a pumpkin using the poster at the top of this post! To top it all off, we had an exciting field trip to pick out our very own little pumpkins. {One of the kids lost her pumpkin peduncle. She wanted to go look for it to try to glue it back on--they sure do love those peduncles!}



Most of my first grade friends say, "Yes, Please!" to pumpkin seeds!



Adorable little paper bag pumpkin patch! All you do to make the pumpkins is stuff the bottom of a brown lunch bag with a few paper towels, twist the top to create a *peduncle*, then paint with tempera paints. I tied the middle with some fun ribbon!