Pumpkin Jack

 14 Days ago we read the story Pumpkin Jack.  

After reading this story, we decided to carve our very own Pumpkin Jack and watch him rot in hopes of seeing the pumpkin life cycle come full circle.  

Today was day 14 of our observations.  We each took time to observe the changes to Pumpkin Jack, both outside and inside.  

We noticed that his skin is wrinkly. His eyes and nose are caving in.  We noticed that his 1 tooth is no longer visible and that the space between his eyes has cracked.

We noticed that there was mold growing on the inside and some of the seeds have sprouted! One of the sprouts is starting to grow out of his eye.  We hypothesize that this is because the sprout is seeking out the light.

At least once a month we will update our Pumpkin Jack observation book with the changes that are taking place.  

Pumpkin Jack Day 40

 

We were so excited to see Pumpkin Jack!  He sure has changed!

Pumpkin Jack sprouted 5 shoots. His face isn't recognizable.    We are hoping that he will begin to vine out of the jar!

Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin Jack Experiment
Day 1

After learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin from the books Pumpkin Circle and Pumpkin Jack we decided to start our own Pumpkin Jack.

 Today, we placed a Jack-O-Lanterns into a jar to decompose.

What will happen?
Will we see the pumpkin circle right before our eyes?
Will we grow a pumpkin?

We can't wait to observe the changes that will take place over the next few weeks and months.

This box is gonna get messy!

Do you want to do this at home along with us?

Place your pumpkin in the corner of your yard.  When we check our pumpkin at school. Check your pumpkin at home. You will know when we check our pumpkin because I will update our blog with our observations. 

Pumpkin Jack: Observation Day 20

Today we looked at our Pumpkin Jack. I can tell you this, he is definitely decomposing VERY fast!  Just take a look at what he looked like on day 20!

Read what some of our observations were. 

Pumpkin Jack Day 1 (2015)

Pumpkin Jack Experiment
Day 1

We placed a Jack-O-Lanterns into the box to decompose.

We can't wait to observe the changes that will take place over the next few weeks and months.

This box is gonna get messy!

Do you want to do this at home along with us?

Place your pumpkin in the corner of your yard.  When we check our pumpkin at school. Check your pumpkin at home. You will know when we check our pumpkin because I will update our blog with our observations. 

Good Bye Pumpkin Jack

Well, we decided today was our last observation of our dear friend Pumpkin Jack. Check out our observations and all the changes that Pumpkin Jack went through this year!

 

Yuck, look at all the moisture inside! It is hard to believe that when we put the pumpkins in with DRY dirt!

Even more disgusting when you look inside.  We made sure to plug our nose...we didn't want to find out the hard way how it smelt.

We ceremoniously said goodbye to our friend.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Day 1

Dry dirt and nice orange Jack-o-Lanterns.

Day 18

Moisture and mold, but still our pumpkins are orange and somewhat round.

Day 32

Lots of mold and the pumpkins are beginning to lose their shape. Not so orange any more.

Day 70

What a muddy stinky mess! This is where I began to question my experiment choice.

Student Interviews

What a GREAT week back!

Pumpkin Jack

YUCK!

That is the only way to describe our observations of Pumpkin Jack on Day 70!

See for yourself.

We noticed an increase in the amount of water that is inside the container.  Keep in mind, before the pumpkins were placed into the container we only filled it with dirt.  We never added any water!

We noticed mud and a small amount of orange skin left.

We noticed that you could tell where the two pumpkins had been.

Reading Roller Coaster

This is one of our favorite reading activities!

To complete Reading Roller Coaster, you have to go through a variety of obstacles.  Before you can do each obstacle, you have to read a Trick Word.  If you read the word correctly, you get to go through the obstacle. If you read it wrong, you have to go back to the beginning.

If we read the word where correctly...

we got to crawl through the tunnel.

If we read the word there correctly...

we got to try and weave through the crabs without getting pinched.

If we read the word were correctly... 

we had to scoot across the floor like a seal.

If we knew the word they...  

we had to enter the sharks cave and whisper it into his ear.

If we read the word does correctly...  

we got to "harpoon" the whale.

We sure do LOVE Reading Roller Coaster...it is the best way to practice our Trick Words.

Welcome Back!

We had a little bit of SNOW and some Pumpkin Jack to start our Monday off!

Today we played in the "SNOW!"  Mrs. Wanke gave us some story problems to solve and we had to write our thinking in the "snow."  Check out our pictures...we had SNOW much fun!

 

Later in the day we decided to check on Pumpkin Jack!

 

Mrs. Wanke opened the container!  Can you believe it? Can you say stinky and gross?