Gnomes, gnumbers, place value and pumpkins

Our greedy gnomes got to know King Equals today and he taught them a lesson in place value.  We grouped the gemstones, first by ones and then by tens and then by hundreds.
Tomorrow, we will do this lesson again, using pumpkin seeds.

• When you clean out your pumpkin, wash the seeds and let them dry.
• Bake them, if you like.
• Put all the seeds in a large bowl to begin.
• Have the children estimate how many there are and write down all the estimates.
• Then, gather a collection of cups:  small Dixie bathroom cups, larger 8 ounce cups, even larger stadium style cups.
• Count ten pumpkin seeds into each Dixie cup until all the seeds that can be grouped into ten are in small Dixie cups. You will have some single "ones" left over. These leftovers will make the "ones column" (draw it out on poster paper or use your rainbow tray).
• Then explain that the eight ounce cup will have 100 seeds. Count out loud, by tens, pouring from the Dixie cups, until all the seeds are in eight ounce cups.  The leftover Dixie cups with seeds in them will be the "tens column."
• And now, if you have enough, you move on, pouring the eight ounce cup into the stadium cups if you are so lucky to have a thousand pumpkin seeds!
• Show the children how to count and record each column so that you know exactly how many pumpkin seeds you have!

For more pumpkin activities, check these out.