October and it's Pumpkin Time!

Ruby's pumpkin with multiple stems

David's Pumpkin with long stem

Codey's pumpkin with cylinder stem

This is one of the favorite projects for my 2nd grade students each year.  The purpose of the lesson is to review color mixing and the lesson touches on Math connections as well.  Students are given a piece of red model magic about 1 1/2" x 1/2" and they are to divide it into three sections.  A similar section of yellow model magic is divided in the same way.  Students take 2/3 of the red clay and 2/3 of the yellow clay and mix them together to discover they are making orange clay.  It is formed into a ball and a toothpick is used to slightly indent the clay to make the pumpkin ridges.  The pumpkin ball is slightly flattened on the bottom to keep it from rolling around.  The remaining red and yellow pieces of clay are divided into two halves.  A very small piece of blue clay is handed out and divided in half.

Emma's pumpkin with stretched stem

Students combine 1 of the blue pieces with one of the yellow pieces to form a green piece of clay.  This is rolled into a cylinder.  The ends of the cylinder are slightly pointed and flattened a small amount.  The toothpick is again used to add details to what will now form the leaves.  The remaining clay is mixed to form a brown for the stem.  Colors will vary depending upon how large or small students have made the sections of clay as they divided.  The brown is rolled into a cylinder for a stem and them stretched if desired to make it look more like the stem of a pumpkin.