J's at an age where all of the holiday traditions start becoming fun! I really wanted him to get into pumpkin carving, but I wasn't sure of the knife aspect of pumpkin carving. Flashback ~8 yrs ago, my roommates and I found these cute pegs for pumpkins, Fright Lights; think Lite Brites but for pumpkins. I don't think I ended up with the pegs, but I bought new ones just in time for Halloween.
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| J's excitement builds as we open the pumpkin |
Ewww, gooey!
J's turn to feel the pumpkin guts
Pumpkin's clean, now time to tape on the pattern and poke holes, which will be used for hammering in the pegs.
Hammer time!
Almost done. Instead of whacking every which direction, J figures out he can press really hard on the hammer against the pegs. It worked well!
The finished product (the pattern came with the pegs)
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| Kid friendly pumpkin carving |
The happy carver!
Halloween light lesson: opaque, translucent, and transparent.
Pumpkins are opaque. Without carving them out, if you shine a light on them, you can't see the light through the other side of the pumpkin.
Light Pegs are translucent. Translucent items let some, but not all, light through. Another good example of this is a frosted glass shower door.
The carved part of the pumpkins are transparent. Light shines through transparent items, unblocked. Windows and clean glass are great transparent objects.
What happens if you change the quantity/quality of light?
Is it easier to see the pumpkin with the lights on/off?
Before carving, stick your lighting source in the pumpkin to see if you can see it. Can you see it when the lights are on or off?
How does the inside of a pumpkin feel?
Unplanned science lesson while prepping for the holidays? Check!
Happy Halloween!
Those light pegs are cool! And I'm very impressed with your carving skills!
ReplyDeleteThanks. They have to be my favorite Halloween find. Big J did the carving. Both the bat and the haunted house were templates that came with the carving tools. Happy Halloween!!
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