Pumpkin Math
Everyday Math Project #3
After arranging a field trip to a pumpkin patch I wanted to do math activities using the pumpkins. My coop suggested using the project in the math manual. I used it as a guideline and added some of my own things. The math project took two days to complete.
Overall the lesson was a success. The students enjoyed doing things with the pumpkins and getting weighed. They also enjoyed cleaning out the pumpkins and eating the seeds after they counted them.
One thing I would do differently that my coop suggested was to pass the pumpkins around the circle, so everyone could touch them. The second thing was to weigh a couple objects on the scale before having the children estimate the weight of the pumpkins. This would have perhaps eliminated the estimates of 100lbs. for a 5lb. pumpkin.
The one thing I found hard was guiding them through a problem solving exercise and not give away the answer. We were making tally marks to find out how many 5lb. pumpkins would equal Latisha’s weight of 55lbs. Each group of 5 tally marks was to represent one pumpkin. This took them forever to figure out, until I drew a pumpkin shape around each group of tallies, and then we counted the pumpkin shapes. I was however excited that my first graders were problem solving.