Today, we have got to give you something for the famous Pumpkin season – we know, we love Halloween too! We have loads of resources, and fun ideas for Halloween already on the site. However, we haven’t done that much on pumpkins, so we feel we need to change this. Here is a fabulous, and simple Pumpkin investigation for the kids to try at home or in the classroom.
This is a beautifully simple, STEM activity that gets the kids thinking about science, while offering basic investigation and report writing skills. It is a really lovely way of bringing a bit of STEAM-based fun to the crazy Halloween season. It is a lovely activity to do after a visit to a pumpkin patch too. You can grab a few different sized pumpkins and investigate a few of them, or just pick one that the kids want to take home.
Don’t forget to get another one to carve though, we’ve loads of amazing pumpkin carving ideas for kids, so you don’t want to miss out on carving because you used your pumpkin for science!
Pumpkin investigation: How to do it
We have kept this simple, so all you are going to need for this is:
- Pumpkin,
- Pencil,
- Your worksheet,
- Scales,
- Scoop for the insides,
- Ruler,
- Spoon and knife to cut the pumpkin top off, and
- Your scientific mind!
What does the worksheet look like?
How to investigate your pumpkins
There really isn’t too much to this for the kids so all you need to do is:
- Grab your pumpkin,
- Weight it, and mark how much it weights within the worksheet,
- Cut off the stalk (carefully!), this may need a bit of adult help here,
- Scoop out the insides, and count the seeds within the pumpkin,
- Measure the height of the pumpkin with a ruler,
- Count the number of lines on your pumpkin,
- Estimate whether the pumpkin is small, medium or large, and
- Check to see if your pumpkin floats. Why not try this once before you remove the seeds and the again afterwards?
Once you have done this for a few pumpkins, the older children can start to see if there are any pattens emerging from the pumpkin investigation. For example:
- Do the bigger pumpkins always have more seeds?
- What range of lines do pumpkins have? Are there more on bigger pumpkins, or do they all tend to have the same number of segments?
- How heavy was the biggest pumpkin?
- How heavy was the smallest pumpkin?
- What is the different between the weights of the biggest and smallest pumpkins?
- Which pumpkin is going to be best for carving and why?
You can decide what further questions you ask the kids yourself of course, the possibilities are many.
<< In order to download this worksheet for pumpkin investigations, just click on the circular image below >>
This is a lovely simple activity for Halloween that has a few wonderful learning outcomes for the kids, and most importantly is LOADS of fun.
Why not check out some of the other Halloween and pumpkin activities that we have on the site too? Our favourite pumpkin activity is of course our pumpkin carving ideas, and the pumpkin bookmark we have. But there is a lot to choose from, so take your pick.
Halloween craft ideas for kids
If you are a Halloween fan, these Halloween craft ideas for kids, alongside some of our printables are perfect for making sure your Halloween goes as spookily as you want it to.
Halloween trick or treat boxes: Free A3 or A4 printables
You can colour in these trick or treat boxes with the kids, or we have a pre-made one too.
Free Halloween photo props or Halloween party decorations
Props for fun photos with the kids, or party decorations - you decide!
Perfect FREE Halloween Lollipop Covers: Perfect for trick or treat bags
Little covers for Lollipops that you can add to your trick or treat candies and sweets to make them a little bit more fun for everyone.
Halloween colouring pages for kids
Fabulous ebook with loads of Halloween colouring fun!
There are some other ideas from elsewhere:
Pumpkin activities and crafts
Easy pumpkin craft for scissor skills
Scissor skills craft for halloween with a lovely pumpkin lantern.
Kids Handprint and Footprint Pumpkin Crafts
Handprint and footprint pumpkin ideas - lots of different ways to use handprint and footprints with pumpkins for fabulous fun for little ones at Halloween.
Cardboard Tube Pumpkin Craft for Kids
You cannot BEAT toilet roll crafts, so here is one for the kids with a pumpkin. Simple, but very effective.
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We would love to see you again on the site soon. Take care,
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!