Pumpkin Fun!

    Measuring, estimating, and comparing are important math skills. The children examined three pumpkins and began asking questions:"If you had to tell your mom how big this pumpkin is, what would you say? Which pumpkin is bigger around? Which is the heaviest?" Each of us estimated our answers and listed them on a chart.  

     

Next, we learned what kinds of tools you need to use to measure something.  We talked about how a ruler would be hard to use on something round like a pumpkin.  We used our hands but everyone's hands were a different size.  We used a string to see which was the biggest around.  Two of our pumpkins were close in size and we could not tell which pumpkin was the bigger.  We discovered a tape measure is a helpful tool to help us.  Units of measurement, like inches and centimeters, help us be more exact in measuring things rather than using nonstandard units of measurement, like string or our hands. 

    We discovered that scales measure what something weighs.  This scale was too small for us to weigh ourselves on, so we talked about other kinds of scales that weigh heavy things like the ones at home and in a doctor's office. 

 If the pumpkin is heavy will it sink or float in water?

  "It is floating!"   

"I can see under it"

                                   

 We ended our exploration by putting the measurement results on our pumpkin graph.  We compared our estimates with our measurements.  We had fun in the process!