Pumpkins!

Although the leaves aren't changing and the weather hasn't gotten much cooler, we're still trying to maintain a sense of Autumn in our lives. The other teachers and I spend lots of time reminiscing about our favorite parts of the Fall season. We figure if we talk about it enough, maybe it'll happen here. Haha. We are planning a "Fall Day" one of these weekends where we're going to turn the AC on real cold, wear sweatshirts, drink hot cider, and eat everything peach and pumpkin that we can think of! I'll be sure to document and share the occasion when it happens!

Since we use an American curriculum, part of my students' required learning is to know the four seasons. So, every morning for the past month, we've had a discussion about what season it is in America. They've got the basics down pretty well (leaves fall off the trees, weather gets colder), but still don't really have a concept of it.

To bring some Autumn to Malaysia, I decided to so some Pumpkin Math with my students this week. Today, they had to weigh the pumpkin before and after carving out the innards, measure the height of the pumpkin, estimate and measure the circumference of the pumpkin, and tomorrow they'll estimate and count the seeds! It was so fun and exciting to see their faces during the whole process. A few of them didn't even know it was a pumpkin. (In their defense, the only one I could find in my price range was still green... the big orange ones are $30 US each! No thanks!). Then, when I started to cut it open they were on the edges of their seats to see what it would look like inside. When they got to scoop out the 'guts' they were making the expected "it's so mushy" and "it feels like brains" comments! It was adorable, like a lot of things they do!

 

When I got home, I decided to try my hand at using fresh pumpkin for baking! After lots of Google research, I just ate my first oatmeal pumpkin cookie. Scrumptious! Hellllllo, Autumn!