Pumpkin Day

Pumpkin day was a success!  A visit from an architect, an extended art class, and a class request for pattern day made the day even more fun!  Ms. Nasser reminded us that the day was perfect for Pumpkin Day because the architect, Megan Carriere, was there to talk about patterns in architecture and pumpkins are covered with lines - a type of pattern!  The day was still filled with many pumpkin activities.

Check out the fun we had!

We read to pumpkins in the Reading Patch.  The children were SO excited to read to the pumpkins!!

We read about the pumpkin life cycle, played pumpkin life cycle war, and matched rhyming pumpkins.

We also sorted pictures that start and do not with the letter p, practiced ordering numbers to 20, and even wrote pumpkin stories!

The children were very excited for the end of the day when they got to travel to four investigation stations that parent volunteers facilitated.

Children counted the number of lines on their pumpkins and remembered to use smart counting strategies and they determined if pumpkins sink or float.  Some students were very surprised that their heavy pumpkins float!

These hard working mathematicians also 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. Way had the children each grab a handful and put a group of ten seeds in each small cup.  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 and the leftover tens and ones.  The total number of seeds for our pumpkin was 354!!  

Thank you to family members who shared your seed estimates with the class.  We enjoyed reading the comments!

Thank you to Mrs. Cammarata, Mrs. O'Leary, Mrs. Way, and Emily's Grandfather for helping with this fun activity!  Also, thank you to the Grella family for donating a couple of the pumpkins.

After Pumpkin Day, we used our new knowledge to compare apples and pumpkins in a Venn diagram.

We finished up our pumpkin unit by reviewing what we already knew about pumpkins prior to the start of our unit and what we were hoping to learn.

The children 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.

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!  Today 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 you think are in this pumpkin!  

Hopefully the 8x10 frame can help give you some idea of the pumpkin's size.

Thank you for sharing your predictions!

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

I spy a pattern!

Throughout the month of October, my class will be exploring, investigating, and creating patterns.  After reading about them and using shapes and movement to practice creating patterns in my room, they will apply their knowledge in the art room with Ms. Nasser.
Ms. Nasser and I created this unit after taking a Project Based Learning (PBL) course this summer.  We have collaborated in the past and love connecting art with our Kindergarten content areas and the Common Core Standards.
Our goal is to help students to see that patterns are all around us.  They help places, clothing, and objects look interesting.  With the new Middleton Center Complex project underway, we thought we could tie in this real life event with what students are learning by having students design community buildings that display their pattern examples.

Our driving question for the students is: How can we, as Kindergarten architects, use shapes and patterns to create beauty in buildings?

We introduced this unit yesterday with a quick video about patterns around Middleton.



I gave students a little background about patterns with a read aloud of My First Book of Patterns by Bobby and June George.  It is a great book.  I highly recommend it!

After watching the video, we went on a pattern hunt around the school.  The students were better at finding patterns than Ms. Nasser and I were!  We were very impressed! Students learned that they are going to become pattern experts.

The children are SOOOO EXCITED about patterns!  Some were even happy to see they had patterns on their clothing.  We decided as a class that we needed to have a Pattern Day and each of us wear patterned designed clothing!  More information will be sent home at a different time about Pattern Day.

Ms. Nasser and I were hoping to gain your help with spotting patterns at home, out in nature, or while you are out driving, shopping, and having fun.  Simply click on the plus sign in the Padlet box below.   Use the up arrow to upload a picture and write your child's name and description of the pattern and where you found it.  If you are having technical difficulties, feel free to email me the picture and caption and I will add it to the Padlet for you.  We will be sharing our pattern sightings over the next couple of weeks!

Thank you for your support!