Pumpkin Shapes

We've had a busy last few days! We had institute days on Thursday and Friday, so I celebrated fall with my 2nd graders last week.

Mrs. Sayre came into our class and read a book called The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by: Joe Troiano. This book is about a square pumpkin who feels left out among all of the other round pumpkins. He feels so different and disliked by the other pumpkins, until one day his unique shape actually saves the day! At the end of the story, the farmer realizes how great a square pumpkin was, so he plants seeds that will grow new pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

To go along with this fun book, we did a STEM project to create our own unique pumpkins. We supplied students with glue, scissors, tape, toilet paper rolls, pipe cleaners, construction paper, and other materials to challenge them to create their own new pumpkin. The only criteria was that they could not build a traditional round pumpkin, but rather a different 3D shape. The students struggled through finding a way to make the pumpkins stand up in a 3D shape, but after some trial and error every student was able to create a new and unique pumpkin. Here are some examples:

Overall, the students enjoyed the activity, while also being challenged. We had a great time!