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The sixth grade teachers ("the Team" or Team) have been hosting "Pumpkin Math" in our school cafeteria for the 6th graders for 9 years. The Team has provided all the materials and we take the students, already partnered up, to the cafeteria and the students "shop" for their supplies to make jack-o-lanterns. This entails, answering some math problems in order to get the price of the items (tools, pumpkin, disposal fee, and candle), computing sales tax then applying coupons to their total cost. Once that is approved by a member of The Team, the students go back to their seat and write a check, in pen and in cursive, in order to purchase their materials. Then a Team member takes the students to the "pumpkin patch" (our playground) to pick a pumpkin. There are 50-60 pumpkins to choose from of all different shapes and and sizes, so doing the pumpkin math and getting to the pumpkin patch first is great but quite frankly, not necessary! The tools we've used in the past have been plastic and break easily. Those that survive this activity are saved for the next year but more have to be purchased...this is a never ending cycle! Students can be as creative as they'd like when carving their pumpkin! After all the pumpkins are carved, the Team places tealight candles in them and light them. The students carry their jack-o-lanterns to the basement...where the Team has to re-light half the candles, we turn out the lights and the jack-o-lanterns glow and look boo-tiful!!! Purchasing the tools and no-light candles for this years pumpkin math activity would ensure that the tools wouldn't break when being used, the candles would continue to "burn" and the Team could use all these materials for years to come.
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