This fall, Kalene Berte, the Tri-County Ag in the Classroom coordinator, visited Taft Elementary to work with second-grade students at Taft Elementary to teach about pumpkins. Berte also presented the pumpkin lesson.

Berte also visited with first-grade students in Mrs. Peyton’s classroom at St. Mary Catholic School. “It was such a nice day that we took the pumpkin lesson outside,” Berte said.

During these AITC lessons, Berte used paper plates to create a “life-cycle wheel” to help the students learn how pumpkins grow. “There are six different views that depict the various stages of a pumpkin’s growth, including the seed, sprout, vine, flowers, a green pumpkin, and an orange pumpkin,” she said.

Students also got to inspect a real pumpkin vine and flowers, plus they used a tape measure to quantify how long the vine was. “They learned that some pumpkin vines can grow over 20 to 30 feet,” Berte said.

-Submitted photo
Maddyx Mueller, left, and Sawyer Legvold, students from Sonja Peyton’s first grade class at St. Mary Elementary in Humboldt, enjoyed exploring pumpkins during Farm Bureau’s fall AITC lesson presented by Kalene Berte, AITC Coordinator for Humboldt County Farm Bureau.

The kids also had the chance to dig in, literally, with their hands to discover the different parts of a pumpkin, including the seeds.

“I explained that pumpkins have hundreds of seeds that we can use to grow more pumpkins,” Berte said. “I related it to how one ear of corn has hundreds of kernels (seeds) that can be planted to make more corn.”

Part of the lesson included information about the important role of pollination in pumpkin production and how different pollinators are vital to this process. Berte also helped the kids learn the different parts of a pumpkin, how those parts can be used, what parts are healthy for people to eat, and whether pumpkins are a fruit or a vegetable.

Do pumpkins sink or float? The kids learned that yes, pumpkins can float.

Before the pumpkin lesson ended, each student received a pumpkin dot-to-dot worksheet, an informational worksheet labeling the parts of a pumpkin, fun pumpkin-themed pencils and a tasty pumpkin-spice cookie donated by Dewey’s Bakery.

-Submitted photo
Kalene Berte, the Tri-County Ag in the Classroom coordinator for Farm Bureau, used paper plates to create a life-cycle wheel to help the students learn how pumpkins grow.