Last week, Mr. Bourquard’s third-grade Mountaineers enjoyed a thematic math lesson involving pumpkins. Mr. Bourquard invited Ms. Heidi Bromley, Senior Mathematics Specialist at Questar III BOCES, to help with the lesson. They read ‘How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?’ by Margaret McNamara. The Mountaineers worked in groups to dig out the seeds of pumpkins and count them to find out how many seeds are in a pumpkin, using the same process as the class in the book. They measured, weighed, and counted their pumpkins’ ridges, then recorded the information they gathered from their pumpkin. The lesson used the collected pumpkin seeds to teach arrays, a visual representation of multiplication, combining hands-on counting with a real-world context. The students then made predictions based on their understanding of the relationship between a pumpkin’s weight, amount of ridges, and circumference as it relates to the amount of seeds it holds. The exciting discovery the Mountaineers made was that the size of the pumpkin does not necessarily mean it will have the most seeds. Mr. Bourquard was happy to see his students so engaged in the fun and informative lesson. Thanks to Ms. Bromley for joining in the pumpkin fun.