Learning while having Halloween fun

Alice Campbell Havre Daily News [email protected]

Students at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic School are giving residents at the Eagles Manor Halloween pumpkins to celebrate the holiday. But there are no scary or goofy faces on the 20 pumpkins. Instead, teacher Kim O'Leary is having the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders carve geometric designs on the orange gourds as a way to make geometry creative and fun, she said. The pumpkins were donated to the students who drew designs, using what they've been studying about circles, on paper and then transferred those shapes to the pumpkins. Seventh-grader Mike Compton said he's never carved a pumpkin before, but liked doing it. He and his partner Tati Ralph created a circle design that Ralph said she hopes people at the Eagles Manor will like and maybe try themselves. While the students are learning about geometry, they're also learning about community service. "I think it's a good idea because it's giving back to the community," said seventh-grader Sarah Snider while she emptied the seeds from her pumpkin. It's important to help people in the community now so that she'll know how to help when she's older, said seventhgrader Lisa Holt. The classes' giving of the pumpkins is a nice thing, said Walt Ball, administrator at the Eagles Manor. "I think it'll be good. I think it'll be fun for some people," he said. Not everyone gets to see younger children on a regular basis, and that's something they enjoy, he said. The students originally planned to take the pumpkins to the Northern Montana Care Center, but because of regulations preventing children younger than 18 from visiting, changed to the manor.