Playing with Pumpkins

October 1, 2010

midnight

Jack-o-lanterns may have hollow heads, but pumpkins are chock-full of learning fun. Carve out time to plant these seeds of knowledge with your kids, inspired by pumpkins.

First Aid & Safety

From establishing trick-or-treating rules to ensuring pumpkin carving is tended by an adult, Halloween conjures appropriate opportunities to discuss safety and first aid with kids. Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics Center for Childhood Safety provides a printable, family-friendly quiz to raise your kids’ IQ (Injury Quotient) on their website: www.ChildrensMercy.org. For a safe and crafty tie-in, decorate pumpkins wrapped in ribbons of gauze with large googly eyes to create a family of mummified gourds.

Regurgitating Science

Carve a jack-o-lantern with a low mouth and top opening large enough to fit a medium jar. For a gruesome science experiment, compliments of Olathe mom Sonia Childs, add to the jar a mixture of ½ cup water, ½ cup baking soda, 6 tablespoons dish soap and several drops of green food coloring. Place the jar inside the jack-o-lantern. Pour in ½ cup vinegar and wait for the pumpkin to lose its guts in a chemical reaction.

Folk Literature & World Cultures

Pumpkins are a favorite motif in the children’s literature of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Visit one of Kansas City’s local libraries and check out variants of the popular fairy tale Cinderella. From the story’s earliest mention in fifth century B.C. Greece; to its dynastic version, Yeh-Shen, set in ninth century China; to the French-inspired tale we recall today, the ubiquitous theme of a young woman triumphing over unjust oppression to great reward endures. The details just shift to reflect cultures from virtually every corner of the globe.

Exploring variants of Cinderella integrates geography, history and social studies into a single learning unit, topped off by pumpkin art. Carve (parent’s job) a tall pumpkin with windows and a door. With bamboo skewers, attach four small pumpkins as wheels. Paint; then add decorative items with glue to create your very own posh pumpkin coach.

Easy as Pumpkin Pi

Pumpkin seeds make natural manipulatives for math problem solving. Create word problems and encourage kids to move (“manipulate”) the seeds around to solve them. Grandparents Deb and Ron Bieker from Overland Park fill a jar with pumpkin seeds and have their grandkids estimate how many seeds are inside—the closest guess wins a prize.
For practice in following directions, measurement, fractions and geometry skills, nothing slices up better than pumpkin pie. Bake your own from scratch (see the Bieker family’s original recipe below), relying on kids to measure ingredients. Next, discuss fractions and decide how to split the pie into even pieces. For older kids, plug the pie’s radius or diameter into formulas with pi (the number) to explore area and circumference: area = ; circumference = π diameter. The math extensions are deliciously infinite.

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

6 T. butter, melted
1 ½ c. graham cracker crumbs
1 ¼ c. sugar, divided
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 T. vanilla extract
1 16-oz. can pumpkin
5 eggs
1 tsp. salt
2/3 14-oz. can condensed milk
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine crumbs and butter with ¼ cup sugar; press onto bottom and sides of a spring-form pan. In a separate bowl, beat together remaining sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla; add remaining ingredients in order and mix well; pour into crust. Bake for 75 minutes. Turn off oven and leave inside with door slightly ajar for another hour. Chill at least 4 hours before serving.