What's in a Pumpkin??

Our visitor Ronit brought a "Big" pumpkin to school.
Morah:  What is this?
Children: A "Big" pumpkin
Chana: Do you want to see our little one?
Morah: What does is it feel like?
Morah: does anyone know where a pumpkin grows?
Children: Outside
Morah: Does it grow from a tree?
Children's eyes wander to the windows and they begin to think...
Chana: NO! It grows on the ground!
Morah:  Does anyone know what makes the pumpkin grow?
Children: Hmmmmmm
Amanda: The seed!
Jordan: Sunshine
Hannah: Water
Morah: That's right a pumpkin seed needs to be planted in the soil and needs sunshine and water to grow.
Morah takes out a chart and we look at the growth cycle of a pumpkin.
The seed, sprout, bud, flower, mini green pumpkin, BIG LARGE PUMPKIN
Morah: Once the pumpkin is fully grown we can now use it for many things.  Do you know anything we can do with a pumpkin?
Sammy: Pie
Hannah: Cupcakes
Aiden: Cookies
Jordan: Muffins
Morah: Let's look at the pumpkin.  It has different parts to it.
Morah passes around the pumpkin
Morah: How does it feel?
We all agree it's hard and heavy.
Anyone know what the orange peel outside is called?
It's a shell.
How about the brown piece on top?
Hannah:  It's the stem
Let's look inside the pumpkin.
The children are excited to see the inside.
Morah picks up one of the seeds.
Morah: What is this?
Sammy: The seeds!
Morah: Do you think we can eat it?
Children: No
Morah: Actually we can eat pumpkin seeds.  We can bake them and eat them.  Should we try?
Morah picks up the pulp.
Does anyone know what this is?
Well this is the pulp.  We need to get the string pulp and seeds out and then we can bake our pumpkin.

The children dig the pulp out with their hands:)

Morah: Do you remember how the pumpkin grows?
Children: With the seed.
Morah: Should we try to plant a pumpkin?
Children: Yes!!
We use the seeds to plant pumpkins.