Talk About It: What Is Inside a Pumpkin?

The big idea: A pumpkin has four parts: rind, flesh, pulp and seeds.

A pumpkin has a hard outside, but what's inside? The hard, smooth skin is called the rind. Under it is the thick orange part we eat, called the flesh. In the middle is the slippery, stringy pulp, and tangled in the pulp are lots and lots of seeds. Each seed can grow a brand-new pumpkin plant!

Questions to ask

• "Knock on the pumpkin. Does it sound hard or soft?"

• "What do you think is inside? Let's guess before we look."

• "How does the pulp feel? Slimy? Stringy? Cold?"

• "What could we do with all these seeds?"

Show it in one minute

A grown-up cuts the top off a small pumpkin. Let your little one look in, then reach in and pull out a handful of pulp and seeds. Point to each part and name it: "rind, flesh, pulp, seeds." Rinse a few seeds and count them together.

Keep it going

Save the seeds! Rinse them, spread them out to dry and look at them with a magnifying glass. A grown-up can also roast them for an older-kid snack. Then read the Pumpkin Life Cycle worksheet together to see how a seed becomes a pumpkin.

Want to learn more?

• The Pumpkin and Its Parts, from PNC Grow Up Great

• Interesting Facts About Fall Standard Pumpkins, from Mississippi State University Extension

• Pumpkin Time, from University of Illinois Extension

Shop these items

Find the books and supplies from this week in one place. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

• Today's book: Pick a Pumpkin by Patricia Toht

• Starter supplies: the basics we use most weeks

• See every week in our Amazon storefront

More for this week: see all our Pumpkin activities, Letter H activities and Number 8 activities.