The holiday season is upon Nantucket, and Halloween is the holiday to kick it all off. Nantucket Elementary School teacher Katie Smith and her 3rd graders knew just the way to handle the spooky holiday.
Carving pumpkins may not seem academic at first, but Smith incorporated math and writing into her lesson while making some pretty cool Jack'O Lanterns with her students. The kids are asked to estimate how many seeds are in each pumpkin, count the actual number of seeds, and then subtract the numbers to get the difference. The students also measure the sizes and weights of the pumpkins and learn about writing in paragraphs. In her six years of teaching 3rd grade at Nantucket Elementary School, this project is one of her favorites.
"I love this project," she said, "It's a good project to do with the kids at school. It's nice for them to be able to carve a Jack'O Lantern and including academics with it."
3rd grader Ciara Wilson was super-stoked to carve a pumpkin for a class project. "You get to make your own face. I like to take out the seeds and stuff," she said.
Another student, KD Tornovish, estimated that she had about 200 seeds. "I've put them in groups of ten so that when I count my seeds, I can count by ten," she said confidently, "I've learned that when you write a paragraph, you have to do an indent."
For more on what's going on at Nantucket's Public Schools stay tuned to Plum on the web and on Channel 22. Take a look at our slideshow below to see what's going on in Ms. Smith's 3rd grade classroom, and be sure to take a look at our video segment from this cool classroom activity.
Photo Gallery
Video
At Nantucket Elementary School, Miss Smith's 3rd grade class learns that pumpkins can be math and that math can be fun. Take a look and see what's going on inside the classroom in this fun video, and be sure to take a look at our full story and slideshow here.
Add your comments...