What a bountiful and beautiful autumn it has been! The past two Novembers, I've collected as many leftover or abandoned pumpkins as I could and then I lugged them to school and cracked them open in a dark patch of soil behind the garden shed. So far, so good -- in the spring they've sprouted into healthy, prolific pumpkin patches with enough squash and pumpkins for the students to harvest and use in classroom projects for a few fun weeks in the fall. Students in all my classes love pumpkin picking, weighing and measuring their pumpkins, making guesses about the number of seeds inside & then cutting into their pumpkins to collect the slimy seeds. No-one can resist a roasted pumpkin seed snack or other pumpkin treats, either!
As always, books are a big part of our garden lessons. A few of our favorite pumpkin books include the adorable Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White, as well as the informative Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons, and the short & sweet Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.
Continue on to see photos of some of our pumpkin & squash adventures!
