Challenge your students to demonstrate their creative problem solving and communicate their reasoning with these fall pumpkin and jack-o-lanterns problems.
Kindergarten – 2nd Grade:
Ask students to color the image, then answer the questions as a class.
1. How many pumpkins are there altogether both in the wagon and on the ground?
2. 4 large pumpkins fit in 1 wagon. How many pumpkins fit in 3 wagons?
3. It takes one person 20 minutes to carve one jack-o-lantern. How many minutes would it take for 2 people to carve all the pumpkins in the image? Use words and numbers to support your answer.
3rd – 5th Grade:
1. Jack has a pumpkin that weighs 15 pounds. After carving the pumpkin weighs 12 pounds. What fraction of the pumpkin was removed when Jack was carving the pumpkin? Use words and numbers to support your answer.
2. Jack-o-lanterns lit by a candle (with a flame) lasts 3-4 days. Using a glow-stick or battery powered candle, extends this time to 6-8 days. In your opinion is it better to use a traditional candle or a glowstick to light your jack-o-lantern? Use words and numbers to support your decision.
3. Kylie took 46 minutes to carve a jack-o-lantern. The fastest time ever to carve a pumpkin (which must include two eyes, one nose and a mouth) is 16.5 seconds, which was done by Stephen Clarke on October 31, 2013. What is the difference in the time it took Stephen and Kylie to carve their pumpkins? Use words and numbers to support your answer.
6th – 8th Grade:
1. The average time for one person to carve a jack-o-lantern is 30 minutes. A team of 6 people are carving pumpkins to decorate the town square. Write an equation to represent the total time (y) needed for 6 people to carve (x) number of pumpkins.
2. The art club is raising money by carving jack-o-lanterns for the city. Each pumpkin cost $5 to purchase. The city pays $12 for each completed jack-o-lantern. The art club wants to raise $250 for new equipment. How many jack-o-lanterns do they need to carve to achieve their goal? Justify your answer.
3. In 2023, 164 million people in the US carved pumpkins leaving 250,000 pumpkins uncarved. In 2025 the number of people carving pumpkins is expected to increase by 3.5%. Unfortunately, the pumpkin harvest has declined by 4%. Based on these facts alone, is there enough pumpkins for people to carve in 2025? Justify your answer.
High School:
1. One pack of 20 pumpkin seeds cost $6.00. Only 80% of the seeds will result in mature pumpkins to be sold. Each mature pumpkin is sold for $10.00 at the farmer’s market. What is the estimated (no guarantees in farming and weather or other issues can result in loss of produce) profit from this pack of pumpkin seeds? Justify your answer.
2. Bill and Heather are carving pumpkins for their community. Read the facts about each person’s ability.
- Bill can clean out (hollow out) a pumpkin in 15 minutes and it takes him another 15 minutes to carve a face on the pumpkin
- Heather can clean out (hollow out) a pumpkin in 20 minutes and it takes her 10 minutes to carve a face onto the pumpkin.
Write a recommendation for how Bill and Heather should collaborate to complete their work. What is the minimum amount of time they need to carve 35 pumpkins? Justify your answer.
3. The Russell Farms Pumpkin patch sells small pumpkins for $3 and large pumpkins for $5. Jessica purchased 18 pumpkins (mixed between large and small). The total cost was less than $80. How many small pumpkins did she purchase? Justify your answer.