Pumpkin Inquiry

Last month we explored pumpkins at various centres.

At the science centre, we investigated the parts of a pumpkin, read books about pumpkins and drew pictures of our pumpkins.

At the math centre, we measured pumpkins and counted pumpkin seeds.

Finally, we tested our pumpkins at the water centre. We found that most pumpkins can float!

New sparks of interest
We wonder:
How long will our pumpkins last?
What can we do with pumpkins when we are finished with them?
What can we do with the pumpkin seeds?
How long does it take for a pumpkin to grow?

Our plan:
We wanted to grow pumpkins in our class. First, we read the book Pumpkin Pumpkin to find out how pumpkins grow. Next, we cut open pumpkins to gather pumpkin seeds. Then, we planted the seeds.
We did not have any luck. A pumpkin sprout did not grow in our pumpkin patch.

Our pumpkin patch observations:
-The soil was too dry.
- We needed to give our seeds more water.

Our next plan:
We needed to recycle the pumpkins in our class. First, we started a pumpkin compost. Next, we made predictions about how long the pumpkins would last in the compost. Then, we observed our pumpkin compost over the next couple of weeks.

 Our observations:
- The orange pumpkins are rotten and they are decomposing.
- The orange pumpkins lasted for 7 days (from the day we cut them open).

Today we made some new observations and made a very exciting discovery!
- "the pumpkins are smelly"
- "all the pumpkins are brown and gooey. They are rotten"
- "there is a sprout in the compost. It is a pumpkin plant!"

- "the seeds from the rotten pumpkins made a new pumpkin!"

Our Pumpkin Inquiry Continued:

We wonder:

What will happen if we plant our pumpkin seeds in our garden outside?

What will happen if we transplant our pumpkin sprouts /seeds from our compost to a pot in the class?

How long will it take for our pumpkin plant to grow into a pumpkin?

How much longer will our pumpkin sprout grow this month?