The Pumpkin Plant (a year long project!)

Probably my favorite thing from this past school year, was our year long Pumpkin Project. I had found the idea to "plant" a pumpkin from this blog.It was so fun to have this growing in our classroom and the class LOVED watching the growth and changes in the plant. I posted periodically about this project over the year, but I thought it would be great to see it all in one place.

WEEK 1:
Just put dirt in the pumpkin and let the seeds sprout. Genius! I cut the pumpkin open and we talked about what was in there, what it looked like, what they thought about the inside of the pumpkin. Then they each got to put some dirt in the pumpkin... and we're just waiting for a sprout! (All that day they kept coming to tell me that we didn't have anything growing yet. I don't think they really believe me that it's going to take a couple weeks. =])

WEEK 3: There was nothing more fun than coming in each day to see if anything had changed in our pumpkins. This week we finally saw a sprout!

WEEK 4: The original sprout got so tall quickly and we had some more popping up!

WEEK 5: Right before the long Thanksgiving Weekend, I noticed that the pumpkins were starting to get soft on the bottom and sides, so I decided to plant them under some dirt. They were sprouting like crazy.

WEEK 10: I had been regularly watering the plants, and unfortunately we had a little bit of a set back when the first batch of sprouted plants died. They seemed to mostly come from one of the pumpkins, and then the other one began to sprout! On these sprouts we also got to see the first real pumpkin leaves. Very exciting!

WEEK 15: The pumpkins really started to comeback strong after half of the sprouts withered away.

WEEK 18: The pumpkin plants had been growing steadily and were doing really great. This week we had noticed that there were little "bud pods" and the kids could not wait to see what they would become.

WEEK 19: The pumpkin plants had been growing like crazy and were quite full of sprouts, and we were still getting some sprouts. We learned that the flowers can be either male or female. The male flowers are on the end of just a long vine, and the female flowers have that small little ball at the base of the flower (what becomes the pumpkin).

                                                 

WEEK 26: Our school does an art show every year, and this year's theme was "In the Garden". One of my class's projects for that was to paint pictures of our amazing pumpkin plant.

                                                

WEEK 28: The pumpkin plant had really been thriving and had filled out their container. I wanted to make sure that they could grow more, so I moved them outside into the school garden!

                                         

WEEK 30: The pumpkins took to outside really well! They basked in the sun and flourished!

WEEK 33: It seemed like everyday I looked at the plant outside it just got bigger and bigger. Some of the leaves were so large that they were bigger than my head. Incredible!

WEEK 34: A baby pumpkin!!

WEEK 36: The main part of the pumpkin plants unfortunately became infested with some sort of bug and was starting to rot. Most of the plant had to be pulled and I was only able to leave a few of the sprouts in the ground. At that point there were two pumpkins on the vine.

WEEK 45: I didn't do anything with the pumpkins, because I heard that the pumpkins might keep ripening, even off the vine. I waited as long as a I could (until I noticed that the stem was starting to get a little moldy). It turned orange! Even the little one started to change to orange.

I wanted to cut the pumpkins in half, because one of our projects during Halloween week was to talk about the parts of the cross section. 

The pumpkin was still good so I saved some for the bunnies and my rats (they'll be psyched!) and I was able to save most of the seeds from the large pumpkin. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet... Maybe plant some more pumpkins? =]

Winter Numberland!

Our theme for the last week of December was "Winter Numberland". Because our school had a half day for New Years Eve and was closed for New Years Day, we did not talk about a letter, number or shape. *We also had a snow day because of storm Hercules, so we did not get to do all of our planned activities.* Yikes! It was such a short week, only 2 1/2 days!

  

We read this week: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr.
                               1, 2, 3 To the Zoo by Eric Carle
                               How Do Dinosaurs Count to 10 by Jane Yolen
                               1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker

We also got to compare December weather from 2012 and 2013. I love doing this, and so do the kids. It's really cool how they are starting to look more at the weather patterns rather than just the actual paper or colors.

Our question of the week was "What is your wish for the new year?" This kids had fun thinking about their answers during morning meeting. What they answered then, they wrote in their journals too.

Our song of the week was "The Months of the Year" I remember singing this when I was little too. To the tune of "10 Little Indians"

"January, February, March and April,

May, June, July, August and September,

October, November and December,

These are the months of the year!"

For our theme of the week, we did a lot with numbers!
We started off the week by painting with number stencils. The kids had fun painting on their numbers and then asking what they had created.

This was a challenging activity, but we worked through it! We used the letter clues in the number words to figure out what number it was. I was so proud of my kids on this one, even though it was super tough, they stuck through and were really happy with themselves when they finished.

We sang the song "5 Little Ducks" by Raffi. When we do this we make little duck puppets and then act out the song while we sing. It's so fun to quack!

To celebrate New Years Eve, we played Bingo with a board that I created.

*I just had to share this project. Another class in the school did it and I think it's so cute!*
The teacher cut out the outline of an elephant for the kids to color, and then used noise makers for the trunk. What a cute project for New Years!

We also practiced counting backward from 10. To help with this I used my math "junk boxes". I got this idea from here. Basically I went to the dollar store and bought some small containers, then I filled them with small items: beads, legos, fun erasers, pieces of ribbon, etc. We pull these out whenever we want to quick count something or practice our addition and subtraction beginning skills. UPDATE: I changed the actual containers and they're so much more compact! See them here.

Singing "10 Little Monkeys" is also a fun way to practice counting back from 10.

We made Fruit Loop necklaces with some cereal and yarn. I taped off one end of the yarn so it would be easier for my kids to string the cereal.

To get the blood pumping, we practiced counting with hops! My kids had so much fun doing that they wanted me to call out 100 so they could hop 100 times! I was a little tired by that point so we only went as high as 30.

*Here is an update on our pumpkins! We planted them the week of Halloween*
I've been watering them , and I'm a little sad to say that the plants that sprouted out of the first pumpkin all died. =[. On the other hand, the second pumpkins sprouts seem to be doing marvelously. I just hope they can stick it out! Any tips?

Up next week, we're back in the swing of things: "Hibernation", the letter Nn, number 11 and brown!

Happy Halloween! (H, 5, Pentagon)

Our theme this week was "Happy Halloween" and we focused on the letter Hh, the number 5 the shape pentagon.

We got to compare the weather in October this year and last year. I love getting the kids thinking about what is different and the same about the two graphs. We always have such good conversation. I like this activity, because I also thinks that it makes them realize that what we do at morning meeting really does matter.

We read this week:  Scaredy Cat Splat by Rob Scotton
                               What Was I Scared Of by Dr. Seuss (Last in The Sneetches and Other Stories)
                               Curious George Goes to a Costume Party by Margret and H.A. Rey
                               Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
                               Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite candy?" This turned out to be a little tough for them to answer, they had trouble picking just one!

For our theme of the week, we actually didn't talk about Halloween that much. We did a little bit, but we focused more on pumpkins this week. I just have to say, I rediscovered that fresh pumpkin is one of my favorite smells. This of course prompted all of my kids to repeatedly come over and smell the cut open pumpkin. =]


First we cleaned out our large class pumpkin and separated the pulp from the seeds. Their faces when they stuck their hands in the pumpkin were priceless! The class voted on how I should carve our pumpkin. A silly face won over Frankenstein and sad face.

After we cleaned it out I roasted the seeds using a recipe that I found on this blog. I never would have thought to boil them in salty water first, but man, did it help make those shells nice and crunchy! My few kids who were adventurous really enjoyed them.

Each child in my class got a small pumpkin that they got to paint. I gave them white, blue and green paint and let them paint however they wanted. I love how each child does just how they want to.

I found the idea to "plant" a pumpkin from this blog. AMAZING! Just put dirt in the pumpkin and let the seeds sprout. Genius! I cut the pumpkin open and we talked about what was in there, what it looked like, what they thought about the inside of the pumpkin. Then they each got to put some dirt in the pumpkin... and we're just waiting for a sprout! (All that day they kept coming to tell me that we didn't have anything growing yet. I don't think they really believe me that it's going to take a couple weeks. =])

We had our school Halloween Parade, which is always fun, and the kids really love to show off their costumes. It's always nice to have a fun school day like Halloween.


I drew a cross section picture of a pumpkin. We talked  about the different parts and they colored it. I was sad that i forgot to save some of the raw seeds to clue on, so we used some macaroni to represent the seeds and pieces of string for the pulp.

We talked a lot this week about the shape pentagon. I couldn't find a song, so I wrote one like others that we sing to the tune of "frere jacques"

"This is a Pentagon, this is a Pentagon.

How can you tell? How can you tell?

It has five sides that are the same size,

it's a pentagon, it's a pentagon."

The kids practiced recognizing pentagons out of other shapes.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 5.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

We also used a color by number page with the numbers 1-5. My kids are really getting good at this, and it's only the second/third time for them! They are getting better and sitting and listening for the directions, working at their own pace. I love it!

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter H,  and the sheet that helps work on letter recognition, both are from books that are mentioned in the "All About Me" post. The students also wrote in their journals for the letter H.

We turned a H into a Horse

We played Monster Munch. The kids have to feed the monster candy, but he only likes to eat "h" candy.

We freeze danced and hopped to music.

For our alphabet wall we made hummingbirds and watched this video. I watched this with my kids last year too. It has great imagery of the hummingbird up close and in slow motion. We talked through the video about what they were saying. At one point we were standing up and "feeling" the difference between eagle bird flaps and hummingbird figure 8 wing movement.

And with the H addition, our wall now looks like...

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: The letter Ii, the number 6, heart and "Farm Animals".