Carving Pumpkins... Just Because!!

Who doesn't want second graders to dig into a gooey, slimy pumpkin?!  I had some sweet parents donate a pumpkin.  Each table (6 kids) was able to scoop out the meat of a pumpkin.  My room mom came to help with crowd control and carve out the top of the pumpkin.  I tend to break knives when I do this myself!

Of course, I had covered the floor with paper, brought plates, and discussed not flinging the meat onto the walls, floor, or each other!  Then they got busy digging out the gunk!

I also handed them Sharpies and said that everyone could draw one feature on the pumpkin that I would carve out later.  Some even added a tattoo that I didn't have to carve out!

They did an AWESOME job working cooperatively together.  **And to add some nonfiction writing to this, we had written a How-To essay the Friday before!  We were prepared with the steps of carving a pumpkin.

Now these jack-o-lanterns are the centerpiece at each table for the week.