Observing Pumpkins Inside and Out (4–5 years)
Text on screen: Observing Pumpkins Inside and Out (4–5 years).
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.
On screen: An educator slides an orange pumpkin to the middle of a table surrounded by children.
Educator: Can you guys touch the pumpkin and tell me how it feels on the outside?
On screen: The children touch the outside of the pumpkin.
Child 1: It’s hard.
Educator: Hard?
On screen: A chart to collect data on pumpkins is shown, listing information about pumpkin size, color, texture, and other details.
Educator: We can see that it's orange. What else do you notice on the pumpkin?
On screen: The educator and the children continue to feel the outside of the pumpkin.
Child 2: It’s skin
Child 1: Bumpy right here.
Educator: It has some bumpy parts. Those don't look orange, do they? What color are they?
Child 1: Gray.
Educator: Some gray bumpy parts.
On screen: The educator records the children’s observations on the chart.
Child 2: Skinny.
Educator: You think it's skinny?
Child 1: And the stem is green.
Educator: And the stem is green. What do you think the inside's going to look like? Do you think it'll be green?
On screen: The educator begins to cut the pumpkin in half.
Children: Orange.
Educator: You think it's going to be orange? Wow. What do you notice?
On screen: The educator sets the two halves of the pumpkin in front of the children.
Riley: Orange!
Educator: It's orange on the inside.
Riley: And so many seeds!
Educator: And there are so many seeds. What else do you see? It is orange on the inside.
On screen: The educator records the children’s observations on the chart.
Child 2: Can we put our hands inside?
Educator: You can put your hands in it.
On screen: The children begin to feel the inside of the pumpkin halves.
Riley: It almost has a thousand.
Educator: You think there's a thousand seeds?
Riley: Uh-huh.
Educator: We're going to have to count them. Do you smell it? What's that kind of smell?
Describer: The children and educator lean forward to smell the pumpkin.
Children: Yucky.
Educator: You think it smells yucky?
Children: Yes.
Riley: It smells like dough.
On screen: The educator continues to record the children’s observations on the chart.
Educator: Yeah? It kind of smells like a yucky squash? How does it feel?
On screen: A child holds up a handful of seeds.
Child 1: I got the seeds.
Child 5: It feels cold.
Educator: You did? It feels cold?
Child 1: I got this much seeds.
Child 2: And I got this much seeds.
On screen: Another child grabs a handful of seeds.
Eliana: It feels wet.
Educator: It feels wet. I heard Eliana say wet. It feels wet.
Child 1: It’s slimy.
Child 2: It’s slippery.
Educator: And slimy and slippery? Oh, man.
Children: Gooey.
Educator: Gooey. Slimy, slippery, and gooey.
Child 1: And the seeds feel hard.
Educator: The seeds feel hard.
Educator: You want me to scrape some of it out for you?
Children: Yes.
On screen: The educator uses a spoon to scrape out the insides of a pumpkin half.
Educator: All right. Oh, look what happens. What does that look like? What does that remind you of?
On screen: The educator shows the children what scraping did to the inside of the pumpkin.
Riley: Pumpkin noodles.
Educator: Pumpkin noodles. That's what I thought, too. It reminded me of noodles.
On screen: The educator continues to scrape the insides of the pumpkin half.
Educator: Look at what happens when I scrape away the sides. You get a lot of pumpkin noodles, huh? Do you remember what those were called?
Children: No.
Educator: Struhhh….
Riley: Strands.
Educator: Strands, I heard Riley say it. She said strands. Those are called strands. Here, I'll clean it all out.
Child 3: Ew! I really don't like this.
Educator: You don't like how it feels?
On screen: The educator dumps the insides of the pumpkin onto the table.
Child 4: My noodles.
Educator: Pumpkin noodles. That's what it looks like to me, too.
On screen: The children feel the insides of the pumpkin that the educator scraped out.
Child 2: It feels weird.
Educator: Look at when you scrape it, did the white pumpkin have pumpkin noodles?
On screen: The educator scrapes the last of the pumpkin insides out and puts the strands on the table.
Child 2: No.
Riley: There were no seeds in it.
Educator: The white pumpkin did not look like this, did it? It looked totally different.
On screen: The children are using plastic tweezers to dig through the pumpkin insides.
Educator: You are finding so many seeds.
On screen: A child picks the seeds out of the other pumpkin half and puts them in a bowl.
Educator: I hope you can get them all out so we can count them.
Text on screen: Credits: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff at Placer Elementary School, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.