Pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins!

My planning may not have been the best this week.  I totally forgot to get a pumpkin and do "Pumpkin Math" while I was teaching about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  While disappointing, it just means that we get to have two weeks of pumpkins, which works out well because we are going to the pumpkin patch next Friday!  It will be our pumpkin celebration!!!  We still managed to do quite a bit with pumpkins this week, so here it is!

We made a pumpkin chart at the beginning of the week to show what we already knew about pumpkins.

As you can see from the chart, we also studied the life cycle of a pumpkin.  The kiddos helped me decide what to draw after we read a book about pumpkins.  Then they completed a worksheet where they had to color and glue the pictures in order to show the life cycle.  We compared the life cycle of an apple to the life cycle of a pumpkin so they could see the similarities/differences.  Next week we are going to be learning about plants in science, so this will be reinforced once again.

I have a plethora of pumpkin books.  The kids loved hearing the nonfiction pumpkin books just as much as the silly fiction ones!  It makes me happy when I see how much they love to learn :)  Unfortunately, that also means they want to shout out what they know all the time (which can get a little noisy!)   Yes, with kindergarteners you have to reinforce the fact that they have to raise their hand to share their thoughts (basically every day. . . for the entire year).

Here are a few of the books that we read this week!

After we read Pumpkin Jack they got to design their own jack-o-lanterns.  They were so excited you would have thought I had given each one of them an actual pumpkin to carve.  Nope, just an outline of a pumpkin for them to draw and color.  The music teacher came in while they were working and she couldn't even say hello before they were all holding up their designs to show them off.

Of course, they weren't just drawing pictures, they had to write sentences to describe their jack-o-lantern as well.  I encouraged them to use shape and color words, since we had already learned about them.  They could use the shape and color charts in the classroom to help them spell the words correctly.

I read them a book about a class going to the pumpkin patch to get them even more excited about our field trip next week.  Afterwards, they each wrote about what they want to do with their pumpkin after they pick it out at the pumpkin patch.  In case you are getting a pumpkin too, here are a couple of ideas you may want to put to use. . .

 (I will carve my pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.)

(I will carve it and stuff it with candy.)

It was a great pumpkin week, but I can't wait until next week when the kiddos get to experience pumpkin math!  I haven't told them about it yet but I know they are going to love it.  Some of them have never scooped out the inside of a pumpkin or tasted pumpkin seeds!  I like to open their eyes to new things, so we will definitely be cutting open a pumpkin and roasting the seeds next week.  Come back and visit to see what else I have planned!

--Lauren