Are you as excited for watermelon season as we are? Extend your enjoyment of the harvest with this fun math activity that explores fractions, shapes, and weights with a watermelon. 

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Our favorite summertime food is watermelon - colorful, mouth-watering, cumbersome-to-lift-into-the-shopping-cart watermelon. But the effort of lugging it home is well rewarded.

Once the watermelon safely reaches its destination, simply carve and enjoy.

Before you completely gobble up your watermelon, have fun using it to explore fractions, weight, and shape with your early learners.

Bonus: More activities to include in a watermelon unit at the end of the post.

Shapes:

 
Cut the watermelon in half. Look for the circle.

Cut in half again. Look for the semi-circle, or half circle.

Cut in half again. Look for the triangle. 

Fractions: 

Cut one semi-circle slice of watermelon into sections as shown: 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8.

Weights: 

Weigh sections of watermelon.
 
Will two 1/4 pieces weigh the same as 1/2?

Food for thought!

Is watermelon a fruit or a vegetable?

Answer: Both! Here's one reason why:

• It's a fruit because it grows from a seed and a vegetable because it is harvested from a field. Explore more reasons to explain why it's both a fruit and a vegetable.

How do you know when a watermelon is ripe?

Answer: There are several ways to test for ripeness. Here's one that's fun to do:

• If it sounds hollow when you tap it, it is ripe. Explore other ways to determine when it's ripe.

 Interesting fact: watermelon is 90% water.

Learning through play

1. Provide a large chunk of watermelon for kids to chop into small pieces.

2. Place pieces of chopped watermelon in a large bowl or on a large tray for kids to squish with a potato masher.

3. Cut rinds (outer shell) into chunks or blocks. Dip in paint and press onto paper for a painting activity. We've already done this fun open-ended art activity with pumpkin pieces.

4. Cut several 1/2 or 1/4 size, triangular shape slices for stacking.

5. Collect seeds to count and germinate.

STEAM KIDS Early Learning Resource

We love math activities almost as much as we love watermelon. That's why we have a Math board on Pinterest with exciting math activities for early learners.