How Many Seeds In a Pumpkin?

Title: How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

Author: Margaret McNamara

Illustrator: G. Brian Karas

Recommended Grade Level: K-3rd

Common Core Mathematics Standards Addressed:

Estimation, Equal Grouping, Represent and solve and problems involving addition and multiplication.

Summary: Mr. Tiffins brings pumpkins to school in three different sizes (Small, Medium and Large). He has the students make estimations as to how many seeds are in each pumpkin. Most of the students base their guesses on the size of the pumpkin. The students begin their investigations by removing all the seeds from each pumpkin, grouping them by twos, fives and tens. The students then have to multiply to get the total number of seeds in each pumpkin. At the end the students are surprised to find out that the smallest pumpkin had the most seeds.

Rating: ***** I thought this was an excellent book because it takes one simple activity and breaks it into smaller steps that would be appropriate for even younger children. It even has a good story to teach, that little things can have big surprises.

Classroom Ideas: This book gives a very fun activity for children to try. It would be good to try the same experiment and see if the results are the same. There are many different fruits or vegetables that can be used instead of pumpkins (Watermelon, squash,etc). For younger students who need less seeds oranges can be used. Other objects (Pennies, tokens, poker chips, etc) can be placed in paper bags and students can still make estimations, group them and then count them.