What to do when Halloween falls on a Monday? That is all sorts of wrong. I really wanted to keep our schedule sorta normal thinking that could possibly tame some of their excitement. I.THOUGHT.WRONG!!!! You would think that spending over 20 years as a classroom teacher I would never make a rookie mistake. Oh Boy did I. I honestly thought Pumpkin Catapults would be a wonderful science activity to occupy their candy/costume craziness. Uh No! Learn from me, people. Nothing should be catapulted on Halloween. But… if you wanted to try this activity on another day, I’m sure it would be lots of fun.
I started the activity by showing a couple of pumpkin catapult videos from Youtube. We talked about what a catapult is and what it’s function is. Next, I let the kids group themselves (I know crazy). I told them they had to be in groups of 2, 3, or 4. I gave each group a bucket of materials: rubber bands, popsicle sticks, masking tape, plastic spoons and of course a pumpkin. I chose the candy variety FYI and probably the only right decision I made the entire day. Ha!
I will admit the kids were learning the entire time. They had a blast and I loved listening to their science discussions. It only got crazy when we tested the catapults. They did a fantastic job and we all survived Halloween on a Monday.
