Teachable Moments in Preschool - Pumpkins

 

We had pumpkins in out classroom the month of October.  Pumpkins are an exciting addition to a preschool classroom, with the anticipation of carving the pumpkins at the end of the month.  Pumpkins were placed on the floor for children to view while they were in our block center.  Children could feel the weight of the pumpkin, the ridges, the dryness of the stem, and tap it to feel the hollowness of the pumpkin.  On Friday, we moved the pumpkins to the shelf on a tray in preparation to carve them on Monday.  On Monday when we came in to examine out pumpkins, we noticed that one was starting to develop a fuzzy mold on the bottom.  The other one was fresh, nice and smooth.  

Children instantly started asking questions.  "What happened?  Do we throw it out?  Did bugs get to it?  Is that fur?  Does it stink?  Does the inside have fur?"  I was ecstatic by the unplanned teachable moment that was presented by two pumpkins purchased on the same day from the same location.  Teachable Moments are when an unplanned event happens, and you have the opportunity to teach the children something that may not have been planned that day.  Sometimes these are things that align to your lessons, such as our pumpkin discussions, or it may be something completely random like a student asking how big the largest American flag is (By the way... it is 255 feet by 555 feet, and weighs 3000 pounds)!  On this particular day, I was also interested when the child ask if the pumpkin was moldy on the inside as well.  We took this as an opportunity to discuss how pumpkins decompose, and this pumpkin started it decomposition sooner than the other one.  Then, we took a vote to see if the pumpkins would be different on the inside or the same.  Most of the children thought the pumpkins would be different, with the one being moldy on the inside.  

We then got to carving the top of the fresh pumpkin as the control.  The fresh pumpkin smelled and looked as we expected:  orange, "pumpkin stink", and had lots of wet guts.  The other pumpkin was the mystery.  As I cut the pumpkin open, children waited patiently for the tp to be removed so they could see if they were different.  As the top was removed, they were a little disappointed to see that the pumpkins were essentially the same on the inside, even though the exteriors went through a visible change.  The only difference was the moldy pumpkin was a bit drier on the inside.

I then gave the children a small scoop of seeds and guts from the fresh pumpkin to have a sensory and fine motor experience.  Children were able to squish the guts and pick the seeds out to see how many were in their pile.  At the end, I carved the pumpkin with a cute face, and we set it outside by the tree for our preschool families to see.  

I am very thankful for this teachable moment.  The children learned about decomposition, mold, voting, making a guess of what the pumpkin would look like on the inside, as well as many other learning opportunities.  It is never a dull day in PreK!