What do You Know about Pumpkins? Interactive Notebook Activity

Amazing Pumpkin Facts!
by Gail Skroback Hennessey
Click here for a downloadable version: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/PUMPKIN-FACTS-1482068

1. Pumpkins are thought to have originated in Central America, specifically Mexico. Some seeds found date back to 5500 B.C.
2. Top pumpkin growers are U.S. farmers, growing more than 1.5 billion each year.
3. The word pumpkin comes from the French word for “large melon”, pompon. The English used “pumpion” and colonists used “pumpkin”.
4. The world’s largest pumpkin pie was made in New Bremen, Ohio, in 2010. 1,212 pounds of canned pumpkin, 109 gallons of evaporated milk, 525 pounds of sugar, 14.5 pounds of cinnamon, 7 pounds of salt and 2,796 eggs were used. It weighed 3,699 pounds.
5. Did you know that pumpkins are 90 percent water?
6. Some people used to believe that pumpkins could cure snake bites and help remove freckles!
7. In addition to orange, pumpkins can be green, yellow, tan, white, red, and blue.
8. The “Pumpkin Capital of the World” and home to Libby’s Pumpkins is Morton, Illinois.
9. The fibrous strands of string and seeds are called the “brains” of the pumpkin.
10. Carving pumpkins originated in Ireland using potatoes, rutabagas, and turnips. Irish immigrants to America started using pumpkins as they were easier to carve and hollow!
11. Part of the squash and cucumber family (cucurbita), pumpkins are actually considered fruit!
12. Ohio, Illinois, California, and Pennsylvania are the top pumpkin-growing states.
13. In 2013, Keene, New Hampshire, kept the record for the most lit pumpkins! 30,581. It holds the record in 2016, too.
14. Crowned the record heaviest pumpkin grown in North America (2016), a  Rhode Island man grew a pumpkin which weighed in at a whopping 2,261.5 pounds.
15. A pumpkin grown in the country of Belgium (2016) tipped the scale at a whopping 2,623 pounds!

Activities:

• Illustrate a picture of one of the facts learned.
• Write a poem about a pumpkin.
• Pretend you are a pumpkin and write about your day in the pumpkin patch, on a porch or waiting to be purchased at a farmer’s stand.

Try my webquest on pumpkins that includes 10 web questions with several comprehension questions (lots of extension activities).

Gail