Kelsi Hernandez, an ESL Teacher at Oak Ridge, strives to provide her emergent bilingual students with new and meaningful experiences. She knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate a special pumpkin themed lesson.  

“At this time of year, I thought using a pumpkin would be an exciting way to teach its symbolic meaning. Several years back, my grandmother told me about the idea, and I had to try it out myself. I felt the classroom setting would be great and the students would love the entire project,” said Hernandez.  

The students first looked at the parts of a pumpkin by cutting it open and examining the insides. Then, the students learned new vocabulary words by labeling the different parts of the pumpkin. The lesson ramped up when the students made predictions about what would happen if soil, sunlight, air, and water were added to the inside of the pumpkin.   

The class continued to read and learn about pumpkins while observing what changes were happening to their classroom pumpkin.  

“Each day the pumpkin’s growth was observed, and the students were beyond excited to get to the room each day to see how much the pumpkin had grown,” said Hernandez.  

Hernandez believes that it is incredibly important to learn through experiences and action learning.  

“With my students coming from many different cultural backgrounds, hands-on activities and building background knowledge plays a vital role in the learning process,” said Hernandez. “Many students had never experienced cutting into a pumpkin and using their five senses to observe the inside. To watch the excitement on their faces, it was easy to tell that it was successful and an unforgettable lesson.” 

What an awesome lesson, Kelsi Hernandez! We know that the students have loved getting to watch their very own great pumpkin come to life.