Pumpkin Spreadsheet

Excel documents don't only have to be used for money and for the organization of people's information, rather, they can be used even in a second grade classroom. I was reading about a second grade teacher in which she implemented an excel spreadsheet to compare and analyze pumpkins in her classroom. She had the students predict the weight of the pumpkins, weigh the pumpkin, predict the number of seeds, then gut the pumpkin and actually count the number of pumpkins seeds all of which were placed in the spreadsheet showing the relationships between the numbers. She had each student do a different part of the activity, whether it was weighing or counting the seeds, and each was in charge of inputting that data within the section of the spreadsheet.

I would definitely use this in my classroom either to do the same project or perhaps to show how many leaves fell during a week of school, how many kids eat hot lunch in a week etc. I think at first to make it easier for the students I would do a few excel spreadsheets on the board, then on the computer with them, and slowly allow the students to do their own excel, using data that they choose. It is really easy to change this lesson plan for different age groups and I would highly recommend this to any teacher to use in their class.