Discover amazing pumpkin facts for kids!
Pumpkins, or gourds, are fruits that are a delicious food and also a great autumn decoration.
They are round in shape and have horizontal lines in their orange skin.
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Sometimes, pumpkins can also be yellow or green!
They have a thick shell on the outside and a seedy pulp on the inside.
Pumpkins can grow almost anywhere except Antarctica and they are a pretty popular crop all over the world.
Pumpkins are amazing!
Let’s learn some more about pumpkins!
Facts About Pumpkins
Pumpkins Grow on Long Vines
Pumpkin plants grow as a very long vine, which can get to be as long as 30 feet!
Each vine has green twisty tendrils that help the pumpkin plant hold on to fences, poles, or even other plants to spread out.
Growing on the vine, you will find dark green heart-shaped leaves that are rough to the touch and beautiful large yellow-orange flowers.
When a honeybee flies into the flower to pollinate it, the flower will then grow into a pumpkin.
How cool is that?
You Can Eat Almost Every Part of a Pumpkin
Almost all parts of a pumpkin are edible.
The only piece of pumpkin that you most certainly cannot eat is the stalk.
Everything else, you can chow down on.
The skin, the pulp, the seeds, and even the yellow flowers on the vine are all edible.
Pumpkins are full of Vitamin A and potassium, and they are also low in fat.
So unless you’re diving into a whole pumpkin pie, it’s safe to say the pumpkin is a very healthy snack option.
Pumpkin Pie Used to be Something Different
In the early days, pumpkin pie looked a little different than it does today.
Back then, pumpkin pie was made by hollowing out pumpkins first and then filling the shells with milk, honey, and spices.
The filled gourds were then roasted in hot ashes to make something like a pumpkin custard.
It actually sounds pretty good, don’t you think?
Illinois Grows the Most Pumpkins
You can find plenty of pumpkin fields in the state of Illinois.
Over 12,300 acres of pumpkins are harvested every year.
In fact, the city of Morton, IL is said to be the Pumpkin Capital of the World!
Morton is also home to the Pumpkin Chuckin’ contest.
This competition has players chucking pumpkins across a field with giant catapults.
Fun!
The Largest Pumpkin in the US Grew in New York
Previously, a New Hampshire man by the name of Steve Geddes took first place in 2018 for growing the largest pumpkin.
Weighing in at a whopping 2,528 pounds, Geddes pumpkin was the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded in US history!
But then, in 2022, pumpkin grower, Scott Andrusz, unveiled his 2,554 pound pumpkin at the Great Pumpkin Farm outside of Buffalo, New York!
Can you imagine?
Expand Pumpkin Facts Learning
Whether you’re on the way to the pumpkin patch or getting ready for fall in the classroom or at home, fun facts about pumpkins are always a great addition to your activities!
And what better way to expand that learning than with an adorable Fun Facts About Pumpkins mini-book?!
My kids and my students always LOVED collecting mini-books because they’re so cute and they just make learning fun.
GRAB YOUR COPY OF THE PUMPKIN FUN FACTS MINI-BOOK HERE!
And don’t forget to print out your free copy of the Fun Facts Worksheets that help your students demonstrate what they learned!
Pumpkin Facts
These fun pumpkin facts may be a bit surprising, but interesting nonetheless!
Being an entirely edible fruit, pumpkins can be made into pie, bread, soup, and more.
If eating pumpkin isn’t your thing, you can always decorate one for Halloween, or enter a Pumpkin Chuckin’ contest.
How do you like your pumpkin?