rotting pumpkins

What happens when a jack-o-lantern is left in the studio over a long weekend?  It CHANGES.  These changes provided such a wonderful opportunity to investigate and explore the process of decay up close.  I am always surprised by how reticent children have become to getting messy.  So in the pursuit of science, I put out rubber gloves and we spent a day examining a rather mushy pumpkin.

Not only was it slimy and juicy and odoriferous, it was growing a fabulous layer of mold.  The children and I photographed and drew our observations and some theories emerged.  A few are represented here:
"What happened to this pumpkin?"
" got really squished...Maybe a rabbit jumped on it...Someone stomped it." 
We compared two pumpkins, both purchased at the same time but the squishy one was cut into a jack-o-lantern and the other left as a whole pumpkin.  We laid on the whole pumpkin and sat on it...even I (huge as I am) couldn't squash the pumpkin with my weight...so we decided the rabbit theory was a no go. 
Someone suggested "Maybe it's rotten!!...Maybe someone hit it with a hammer...I think it's rotting."
I asked, "Why is it rotting?"  A child replied, "because Halloween is over!" as if that explained everything and then a confident five year old girl stepped up to the pumpkin and announced, "It rotted after you carved it.  They always rot after you carve them", and that was the end of that.