Pumpkin Math and Science Activities for Kids

October is the perfect month for pumpkin math and science! And How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara is the best book for setting that stage.

You’d think it’s a book about math (and mostly, it is). But it’s also about inquiry, teamwork, and learning that the size of something small doesn’t always reflect the enormity of what’s inside.

Yep … pumpkins AND people.🧡

It tells the story of Mr. Tiffin’s class and their collaborative work to find out which of three pumpkins has the most seeds. He poses the question. The kids gather their supplies. And then they get started scooping, sorting, and counting seeds. Together, they decide one group should count their seeds by twos, another by fives, and another by tens.

Each time I read this book to first graders, many of them predict the largest pumpkin will have the most seeds. Seems plausible, right? But they’re surprised to find out that’s often not the case.

Not only does this book lend itself to math and science concepts, but it’s pretty easy to tie in the important life lesson: You can’t judge a book by its cover, as sweet Charlie (one of the story’s main characters) discovers.

PUMPKIN MATH AND SCIENCE

If you have 5 pumpkins and a few basic supplies, then you have exactly what you need for a whole week’s worth of pumpkin math and science investigations. Start on Monday by reading Margaret’s picture book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? and then get ready for the fun!

With these activities, it’s easy to tie in math concepts such as:

place value
numerical order
measurement
addition
collecting and analyzing data

These pumpkin activities also cover science concepts such as:

the physical properties of matter
force and motion
sinking and floating
making predictions

DAY ONE

The first day is really just about getting to know our collection of pumpkins and discovering what makes each of them unique. We spend time observing their physical properties, measuring their height and weight, and comparing them to each other. This day culminates in a lesson where we collect all the data and then analyze it. We discover the answers to questions like: Which pumpkin is the heaviest? and Which pumpkin is the shortest?

DAY TWO

Pumpkins are heavy so they should sink, right? This is what most kids think, so we spend day two testing out our theories. The children love this day because they get to put pumpkins in water and use a timer, and (for whatever reason) they LOVE using my timer.

Spoiler Alert: Almost every pumpkin we’ve ever put in water has floated. It may bob a little. It may tilt a little. But it almost always floats. This is because pumpkins are less dense than water. The easiest way to explain this to kids is to let them in on the secret that the inside of pumpkins are hollow and contain a lot of air. All that air inside causes the fruit to float.

PUMPKIN MATH AND SCIENCE: DAY THREE

On day three, we make all sorts of observations and conclusions about energy, force, and motion. We review pushes and pulls and then try desperately to get our pumpkins to roll along a straight line. Bumpy objects don’t roll very smoothly (or straight) as kids quickly discover.

To help them understand why, have a smooth ball on hand (like a 4-Square ball) and demonstrate how much better the ball moves in a straight line. As they compare the physical properties of the ball to the pumpkins, they’ll make conclusions that the irregular shape of a pumpkin affects the way in which it travels.

DAYS FOUR AND FIVE

All of our pumpkin math and science work has been leading up to these last two days … and the kids are excited! On day four, we finally open up our pumpkins so we can use our senses to compare the outside to the inside. After that, we bring Margaret McNamara’s picture book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? to life in our classroom.

The ultimate goal is to see which pumpkin has the most seeds. Most kids hope it’s their group’s pumpkin, so they’re very serious about scooping, sorting, and counting ALL the seeds they can find inside their team’s pumpkin. There’s so much math involved in this lesson. It’s a great way to practice place value skills.

On the final day we chart our pumpkin seed data and finally find out which pumpkin has the most seeds. This math lesson is full of skill practice and helps us review key math vocabulary like fewest, more, lowest to highest, and sum.

👉TEACHING TIP

Some children won’t like the way the inside of the pumpkin feels on their skin. I recommend being sensitive to this to avoid a potential crisis. Instead, give those children a different, but equally important, job during the process. For example, I had a student one year with specific sensory preferences who could’ve easily become anxious and overstimulated by the thought of touching the pulp and seeds. So we gave him the job of Materials Manager. Throughout the activity, he delivered extra paper towels, refilled water bowls, ferried the trash can around, and monitored our time. It was a great way to value his contributions without grossing him out.

MORE RESOURCES FOR PUMPKIN MATH AND SCIENCE

Academic vocabulary is important. Kids need to know what things are called and what they do. For this reason, I usually make simple, colorful posters for key words we’ll be using during our lessons. I keep them displayed during our work so we can refer to them when needed.

You can grab this Pumpkin Math and Science resource 👉HERE. It’s ready to print and use. In addition to the student pages, you’ll need the following supplies:

4-5 pumpkins (one per team)
a scale
a ruler and a tape measure
a timer
a plastic bin larger than the largest pumpkin
masking tape
newspaper and paper towels
wooden or plastic spoons