"H" is for Halloween~ Parts of a Pumpkin!

Today we didnt do as much school work as I would have liked, but I did get some things knocked off my to do list! :) We did however take the time to cut a pumpkin in half and examine it to see the parts of it! I wanted to do this alot this week since we still have a couple of pumpkins! I think that if you are going to teach something to a child, the most hands on way is always best! :) I mean, pictures are great, but if you can cut a pumpkin up, that going to be much cooler! All I did was pull out an old towel, and cut {dangerously carefully} the pumpkin in half starting at the top! After that I told Bunny the the parts of the pumpkin pointing to each part and saying the name. Then I asked her to point to the part I would name {this didnt work as well as I wanted as she was already digging in}. Finally I asked her to tell me the name of the part. She got most of them. She confused the pulp and the flesh, but I think that she got it after a while!

Here is our pumpkin

You can see the part here:

Shell

Stem

Flesh

Pulp

Seeds

Here she is touching the flesh as we were talking about the part of a pumpkin

Getting into the "goop"! ;)

Here is her drawing of the parts of a pumpkin!

I also made up a little song to help her remember the part! Songs are amazing teaching tools! If you have a song, you can teach something forever {think about the little song "30 Days Hath September....}.

Parts of a Pumpkin Song

Sung to: The Weekdays Song {the one from Barney}

There are fie parts, There are five parts, there are five parts to a pumpkin,

First a stem and then the shell, then the flesh, pulp, and the seeds!

There are five parts, there are five parts, there are five parts to a pumpkin,

There are five parts, there are five parts, there are five parts you can see!

Another thing that I really wanted to do, but forgot to do, was print off the parts of a pumpkin nomenclature cards from Montessori Print Shop {they do have more parts names then I did though, just FYI}. It would be a really great way to keep the learning going after the pumpkin is gone! :)

What hands on teaching do you like doing?