Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

Pumpkin day last Friday was a HUGE success! The day was filled with many pumpkin activities. Check out the fun we had!
We read to pumpkins in the Reading Patch.

We read and acted out our pumpkin life cycle poem, read our life cycle books, played a life cycle game, and even matched rhyming pumpkins.

The children were very excited for the afternoon when they got to work in partners and travel to four investigation stations that parent volunteers facilitated.

Children counted the number of lines on a pumpkin and remembered to use smart counting strategies...

They also determined if pumpkins sink or float, measured the height of their pumpkins with cubes, and had the opportunity to feel the gooey inside of a pumpkin and count its seeds.

To count all the seeds, Mrs. Brown had the children each grab a handful and put a group of ten seeds in each small cup.  At the end of the day, we arranged the cups of seeds into ten frames so we could practice counting by tens to 100 and then from there counted by hundreds, the leftover tens, and the ones.  The total number of seeds for our pumpkin was 544!!  Thank you to families who shared your seed estimates with the class.  We enjoyed reading the comments during morning meeting.

We finished up our pumpkin unit this week by reviewing what we already knew about pumpkins prior to the start of our unit and what we were hoping to learn.  The boys and girls were surprised with how much they learned about pumpkins.  Congratulate your pumpkin experts on the new knowledge they attained and have been eager to share with staff members in our school.

Yesterday, we finished up our pumpkin unit by comparing them to apples.  We were surprised to see how similar pumpkins and apples are!  Can your child share with you one way apples and pumpkins are the same and one way they are different?

Lastly, we were excited to hear Mrs. Lancaster's father-in-law was happy to bring his award winning giant pumpkin to school for all the students to see today.  The children asked Mr. Lancaster thoughtful questions about growing giant pumpkins, what the patch and seeds of a giant pumpkin look like, and how he transferred the pumpkin from the patch to the trailer.

This is a Dill Atlantic Giant Pumpkin that won 2nd place at the Topsfield Fair.  It weighs 1,954 pounds!
Thank you Mr. Lancaster for coming to Fuller Meadow!

I am impressed with the knowledge your children have gained!  I am sure you have learned a little more about pumpkins these last couple of weeks as well :).

How many seeds in our pumpkin?

We are very excited for Pumpkin Day on Friday when we will see if pumpkins sink or float, measure how tall our pumpkins are, and count the seeds of one of our pumpkins!  Before we count the seeds on Friday, we made predictions or estimates of how many seeds the children think one of our pumpkins has inside.  To help educate the children on how to make a good estimate, I read them the book How many seeds in a pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara.  We learned some important information from the book that helped us make our estimates.  Check out these cool facts we read:

• Each line on the outside of a pumpkin has a row of seeds inside.

• The longer a pumpkin grows on the vine, the darker it is and the more lines it has.

• The largest pumpkin doesn't necessarily mean it has the most seeds!

Check out our estimates!

Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and babysitters, we would love to hear YOUR predictions! In the comment section below, add your name and your prediction of how many seeds in this pumpkin!  

Check back the beginning of next week for pictures of our Pumpkin Investigation Stations and to find out the actual number of seeds!

This is how we label!

Essential Question: What do good writers do?

Parents, do you know what it means to label? After today’s lesson, I hope your children have a better understanding of what it means to label a picture. A label gives the reader information about the picture.

Last week we labeled the parts of an apple diagram and our pictures about our apple picking field trip. Today they got to label me, the teacher! 

Yes, they can!

The children thought I looked hysterical!  Who could disagree?!

After, they had the opportunity to practice labeling on their own.  They each got two post-its and labeled something in the room.

 

            

 

I encouraged the children to go home and label the things around their homes – the sofa, a table, a fork, a hockey stick, book, cat, anything! Rumor has it that you the parents might be getting labeled tonight – just a warning ;). When they labeled, I asked the children to listen for and write the first sound of the object and, if they were able to, listen for the last sound as well.  For those who like a challenge, they tried the first, a middle, and a final sound! Associating the sound with a word they are familiar with is always helpful (i.e. /t/ like top if they are trying to spell table).

Labeling helps us to understand information in pictures and is a precursor to writing sentences. Recently, we started Writer’s Workshop.  I have modeled and the children have practiced beginning with an idea, illustrating it with great detail, and then labeling the people and things in their pictures. Eventually, they will be able to use those labels to develop their story and formulate sentences.  This week, we will go back and label pictures of stories we have been working on.  Good writers have enough detail in their pictures to tell the story.  By the end of the week, your child should be able to confidently say "I can label a picture!"

When completing homework each night, encourage your child to listen for the beginning and ending sounds or the beginning, a middle, and an ending sound when labeling their illustrations.

Leave a comment below with how your child tried labeling at home. I would love to share the comments with the class!