Pumpkin-Packed Fun

 This week, if it wasn't about pumpkins, we weren't interested. Pumpkins inspired our whole group reading, journal writing, center time, science study, and art project. 

We came in Monday, all in white, and I think it's safe to say they are SO over the color day pictures.  Just look at their faces.

 

  

Anyway, we hit the ground running with the pumpkin theme Monday by reading the book "It's Pumpkin Time (Zoe Hall). We learned how a pumpkin grows and used picture cards to sequence the stages.  The students later used the same sequencing cards in the number work center.  

There were several activities in the number work center this week, actually. After sequencing the pumpkins, the students put pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) in numbered pumpkins. (The 7 pumpkin needed seven seeds and so on). They also had to reassemble a photograph of a real pumpkin patch and another of pumpkins that had been cut open.  They had to order the numbers at the bottom of the picture to put it together properly. 

 

Doing this center activity helped lead into our next whole group science study, "What do pumpkins have? We made an anchor chart and listed, with labels,  what we could see on the outside of pumpkins and inside the pumpkins. 

 

The next day, we used what we'd already recorded to create sentences about pumpkins. The following day, after reading through the sentences again, I cut each sentence apart, passed the individual words out to the students, and they had to work together to reconstruct the sentences.

 

Our other pumpkin-y centers this week included a pumpkin patch game in the math game center. The students started with five candy pumpkins. To discourage the students from eating them, each child got a cup of some candy corn to munch on while they played.  The rest of the pumpkins were scattered throughout the "patch."

  

 The students drew a card with either a +1, +2, +3, +0, -0, -1, -2, or -3.  This was to reinforce that plus means to add more and minus means to take away. So the students did accordingly with the pumpkins. They either collected more pumpkins into their ten frames or had to put some pumpkins back into the patch.

 They matched uppercase and lowercase letters onto jack-o-lantern faces in the letter work center.

 And they drew faces on pumpkins in the fine motor center.

 A lot of fine motor skills were involved in our art project, too.  The students cut out a pumpkin, which opened like a greeting card.  

 

Then they used Elmer's white glue (for the first time - gasp!) to adhere the "pulp" and the seeds inside the pumpkins.

 

They glued a picture of the pumpkin life cycle onto the opposite side....

  

 

and drew a jack-o-lantern's face on the front.   

 

 All throughout October, we've been seeing jack-o-lanterns and thinking Halloween thoughts when we do our calendar math. Our October calendar has an ABC pattern using a trick-or-treat pumpkin, a spider, and a mummy. When a student touches the card, it disappears to reveal the next piece of the pattern. Then we move the arrow to show which day it is and count the days until birthdays and, of course, Halloween.

 In the next activity, the students go trick-or-treating. They tap the spinner and move that many pieces of candy into the bag.  Then they spin once more and add that amount into the bag. The class counts up the pieces and we record their number on the class list.

 

On the final page, we add on to our days in school and move the pumpkin on the number grid. Then we do that many exercises.  Pretty soon, we'll start counting down the days to the 100th day of school.

 Though last week was fire safety week, the fire department wasn't able to make it out to wrap up the unit last Thursday. So they came today instead. We also got a visit from paramedics and got to tour both the fire engine and the ambulance. I'll leave you with pics from their visit. To say the students were out-of-their-minds-thrilled would be the understatement of the year.