This week the kindergarteners learned all about pumpkins. We started with learning about their life cycle all the way from a seed to a big pumpkin. Next, it was time to look inside a pumpkin, but before we could do that we had to do a little measuring and guessing. We made some predictions about what our pumpkin would look like inside and how many seeds it might have. Finally, it was time to cut it open and clean it out. As we cleaned it, we had to separate the seeds so we could count them later. Our pumpkins had between 400 and 550 seeds. After counting all of the seeds, we got to roast and eat them as a special treat. We also made pumpkin pie pudding. We combined vanilla pudding, pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin spices, whipped topping, and vanilla wafers. Mmmm! We also talked about Jack-o-lanterns. After drawing a picture of a jack-o-lantern, we wrote descriptive words about it. On Thursday, we took a field trip to the Minnesota Children’s Museum. Finally to end our pumpkin unit, we turned our pumpkins into little volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar.
Monday:
Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins… It is finally pumpkin week. Thank you to Maverick and his family for bringing in 11 pumpkins for us.
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter and letter sound, Gg. After watching our G video, we practiced writing capital or lowercase g’s. Then we worked on identifying words that begins with the /g/. We also compared two stories with the same name, Pumpkins. In each of the stories, we learned a few facts about pumpkins. In reading, we reviewed all of our sight words and then we were introduced to two new sight words, a & an. Next we found our new word in our new emergent book, The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin. The first time we went through our story, we counted the number of words in each sentence. The second time we worked together to read the words. The third time we went through the story, we colored the pictures to match the words.
We also read the story, Fall Pumpkin Fun. In this story, we learned all about the life cycle of the pumpkin. We talked about each of the stages in a pumpkins life from a tiny seed to a big pumpkin. We compared and contrasted the life cycle of the pumpkin to that of the apple. We found some similarities such as it turning from a flower into fruit and some differences such as pumpkins grow on vines and apples grow on trees. We used all of our new knowledge to complete a life cycle of a pumpkin activity. After coloring each of the pictures, we had to put them in order.
In math, we did a little exploration with a real pumpkin. We each got to pick a pumpkin. First, we drew a picture of what our pumpkin looks like on the outside and answer the question “How big is your pumpkin?” by circling the correct answer. Then we made some predictions. We had to answer each of the questions with our best guess.
How many lines does your pumpkin have?
How tall is your pumpkin? (using cubes)
How wide is your pumpkin? (using links)
Will your pumpkin sink or float?
How many seeds are in your pumpkin?
Then we had to answer each of the questions by completing the measuring and counting activity. We left two questions blank that we are going to complete later. Draw what the inside of your pumpkin looks like and How many seeds are in your pumpkin?
We also worked on identifying triangles in math. First, we determined the different characteristics of a triangle. We found out that all triangles have 3 sides and 3 vertices (or corners). Triangles can look many different ways. Then we went on a hunt. We looked through magazines to find examples of triangles. When we found out, we cut it out and glued it on a big triangle poster.
Tuesday:
Smile! Today was picture day. We started our morning off by getting our picture taken.
We spent the rest of the morning with our pumpkins from yesterday. Ms. Torborg cut the tops off our pumpkins and we had to clean out the “guts” or pulp. When the inside of our pumpkin was cleaned, we separated the seeds from the pulp. If we weren’t working with our pumpkins, we worked on different reading stations.
After lunch, we were back with our pumpkins. Yesterday we made some predictions about our pumpkins including how many seeds were in our pumpkin. Today we got to see if we were right. We had to count all of the seeds in our pumpkin. First, we read the story, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? In the story, they had three different size pumpkins. Everyone thought that the biggest pumpkin had the most seeds. We took a look at our pumpkins and tried to figure out which pumpkin had the most seeds. Then it was time to count them. To make it a little easier, we used hundreds charts. Working with a partner, we had to fill the hundreds chart in by placing one seed in each square. Once the chart was filled, we could get another one. When all the seeds were in on a hundreds chart, Ms. Torborg helped us figure out how many we had. Our pumpkins had between 350 and 450 seeds in them!
At the end of our story, How many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, we found out that the smallest pumpkin had the most seeds. Mr. Tiffin’s class looked closely at their pumpkins. They noticed that the smallest one was a darker shade of orange. Plus it had more lines around it. Mr. Tiffin told them that was because it was on the vine the longest. We took a look at our pumpkins. We noticed that some were a darker shade of orange too.
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Qq. After watching our Q video, we practiced writing capital or lowercase Q’s. Then we worked on identifying words that begins with the /qu/.
In religion, we talked about the Saints. We know that they were people like us. They lived on Earth and loved God very much. Each week we learn about one of the Saints. To give us a better idea about saints, we watched a video Brother Francis: The Saints, Our Heavenly Friends.
Wednesday:
We had a special treat for snack today, pumpkin pie pudding. We started by talking about pumpkins. We described the life cycle, identified the parts of the pumpkin we eat, and created a list of items we can make out of pumpkins. Then we listened to the story, Growing a Pumpkin Pie! Finally it was time to start creating our snack. First, we crushed up vanilla wafers and put them in the bottom of the cup as the crust. Then we helped Ms. Torborg open a can of pumpkin after we explored how the gears in the can opener worked. Ms. Torborg mixed pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices together. She also put a little spoonful in a vanilla pudding cup. Then it was our turn. We had to mix together our pudding and pumpkin and dump it into our cup. No pumpkin pie is complete without whipped topping. Ms. Torborg added a dollop of cool whip. Finally, it was time to eat. There were mixed reviews. Some people really enjoyed it and others people decided that is wasn’t there favorite.
After recess, we had a safe environment (Virtus) training with Mrs. Scheevel. We talked about personal boundary and safety rules. We also talked about surprises and secrets. Some secrets are not safe and we need to tell and adult.
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Ss. After watching our S video, we practiced writing capital or lowercase S’s. Then we worked on identifying words that begins with the /S/.
We also listened to the story, How Big Could your Pumpkin Grow? two times. The first time we listened for the meaning. We found out that pumpkins can grow really big. The second time, we tried to identify some of the “big” we didn’t know. We found that all of these words were describing words. Then we worked on creating a new class book. This time our book was about a jack-o-lantern. First, we defined a jack-o-lantern as a carved pumpkin. Then we talked about all the different ways a carved pumpkin can look. Next, we drew and colored a picture of a jack-o-lantern on our paper. Our last step was to write 2 descriptive words about our jack-o-lantern.
In math, we worked on building a number board. We each started with a blank number board. For each number on the left, we had to color that many squares in the row. We had to use only one color for each square and a new color for each row. As we were building our number board, we noticed that it looked like steps. Each number had one more box colored in. When we were done, we could use our board to figure out one more or one less than a given number.
In the afternoon, Ms. Torborg started another cooking project for us. As a treat, we roasted/toasted the pumpkins seeds we counted yesterday. Ms. Torborg really did the roasting in an electric fry pan. We got to try the pumpkin seeds before free play time. We divided the seeds into two groups. The first group was salted. The second group was cinnamon and sugar. More people liked the seeds cinnamon and sugar than the salt. We got to have seconds and even thirds if we wanted to.
Thursday:
Field Trip to the Children’s Museum
Friday:
We started our with a ride on the Blue Bus to church. We noticed that today Father Brian wear a red vestment instead of green. After Mass, we were able to ask Father Brian why. He told us that it was in honor of St. Jude and St. Simon who were apostles.
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Ff. After watching our F video, we practiced writing capital or lowercase F’s. Then we worked on identifying words that begins with the /f/.
In the afternoon, we ended our pumpkin theme by turning our little pumpkins into volcanos. We started by putting our pumpkins in a small container. Then we put put a cup with a little bit of water, liquid soap, and baking soda inside our pumpkin. We also received a cup with some vinegar in it. Then on the count of 3 we carefully poured the vinegar into our pumpkin. We watched it bubble and fizz out the top. We had so much fun with it. We did it again.
We also worked on a couple of different activities. Our first activities was a pumpkin coloring sheet. We had to color the pumpkin according to the word underneath it. Our second activity was a pumpkin puzzle. After cutting apart the strips, we had to put the numbers in order to create a picture. Then we glued them on a sheet of paper. We also worked one on one with Ms. Torborg so she could check our letters and letter sounds identification.
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