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? =]

Question of the Week (The Whole Year!)

This year I started asking Questions of the Week! The kids all really liked answering the questions and the parents loved to come in throughout the week and see their children's answers. I write them on a large white board in our classroom, you could do it on chart paper too and save the answers to make a giant book.

Here are the questions that I asked this year.

1. What was your favorite thing about the summer?
2. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be?
3. What is something that you are really good at?
4. What is something that you are not so good at?
5. What do you think Dad does at work?
6. What do you think Mom does at work?
7. What is one reason you like the Fall?
8. What is your favorite song to sing?
9. What is your favorite candy?
10. What would you grow on your farm?
11. What is one word to describe you?
12. What would you bring with you on the Mayflower?
13. What is something you are thankful for?
14. What is your favorite color?
15. What is your favorite thing about school?
16. What do you want to be when you grow up?
17. What would your elf name be?
18. What do you want to do in the New Year?
19. How long would you like to hibernate?
20. What is your favorite thing to do in the snow?
21. What is your favorite letter in the alphabet? Why?
22. What would you like 100 of?
23. What would you not like 100 of?
24. Who do you want to give a valentine to?
25. What can you make music with?
26. What is your favorite weather?
27. Who is your favorite Dr. Seuss character?
28. What would you do with a leprechaun's pot of gold?
29. What do you eat with noodles?
30. What kind of flower do you like?
31. What kind of food do you think is yummy?
32. Why do you like to come to school?
33. What could be inside an Easter Egg?
34. How can you "Go Green"?
35. Where do you want to go on vacation?
36. Why do you love Mom?
37. What color is your house?
38. If you were a bird, where would you fly?
39. What are you bigger than?
40. What is your favorite kind of art?
41. Why do you love Dad?
42. What was your favorite thing about school?

This was the beginning of summer camp, but we kept them going!!
43. What will be in your garden?
44. What are fireworks made of?
45. Why do you love the summer?
46. What do you want to be under the sea?
47. What beach do you go to?
48. What is your favorite animal at the zoo?
49. If you were a dinosaur, would you be an herbivore or a carnivore?
50. Where in the world do you want to go?
51. If you were an astronaut where would you go?
52. What do you like the most about our school?

Do you ask your children questions of the week? What questions do you ask? I love sharing ideas with other teachers, make a comment to let me know that you stopped by!

Math-letes!

For our last week of summer camp, the theme was "Math-letes!" During this theme we also talked a lot about the past year that we spent together, since most of my class is moving onto kindergarten in other schools.

They wrote in their journals for their last page of the year about what they would miss the most about school?

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals.

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle
                               1, 2, 3 Peas by Keith Baker
                               The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (It was our class favorite for the year!)
                               The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
                             
Our question of the week was "What do you like the most about our school?"

For our theme of the week,  the class made bingo marker patterns.

Using pattern blocks I made pictures of different animals and objects. I put out the blocks and my pictures and let the class explore them, making the pictures and their own.

I cut out shapes from paper and the class sorted them. If I can find where I found these materials, i will post it here!

Using Unifix cubes the class made pattern and color towers.

I made a memory game with index cards and stickers. The children had to practice their counting whenever they flipped over a card, to try to find the match.

We watched Meet the Robinson's for our last summer movie day.

Our song of the week was "The Numbers Marching In" to the tune of Saints.

Oh,when the numbers march right in,
Oh, when the numbers march right in.
We will count them one by one,
When the numbers march right in.
Oh, one-two-three and four-five-six,
And seven-eight and nine and ten.
When we finish all our numbers,
We will count them once again.

I found it here.

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

We played "Alphabet Catch" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next letter in the alphabet. We started tossing it to the person next to use, once the kids get more comfortable with the game we'll stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends.

We played "1,2,3" which we have played before and is definitely a fan favorite! We stand in a circle and each child says 1,2 or 3 consecutive numbers starting with 1 up to 9. So for example: "1,2,3" "4" "5,6" "7,8,9" and the next child who would have to say 10 sits down and is out of the round. Then it starts back at one. My class really loves this one, and usually if we play it in the morning, I will hear them in centers or at their lunch tables playing their own facilitated versions of the game.

We played "I have, who has?" which I originally saw being played in a Montessori class. It's so cool to see the children take over the game and help their friends follow along. I currently have three versions that we play, but I am planning on making one with numbers and maybe a grab-bag of random things. That might be fun! This week we played Colors and the Alphabet.

We played "Number Ball" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next number. We stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends and try to beat our record!

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]

Outer Space!

We continued our summer fun with the theme, "Outer Space!"

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals.

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton
                               My Picture Book of Planets by Nancy E. Kryulik
                               Our Stars by Anne F. Rockwell
                               Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton
                               The Birth of the Moon by Coby Hol
                               Circus in the Sky by Nancy Guettier
                               On the Moon by Anna Milbourne

Our question of the week was "If you were an astronaut, where would you go?"

For our theme of the week,  I made a little board game with construction paper and star stickers. Using a dice we moved up the stars to the end of the game in small groups.

We talked about the differences between day and night, like different things that we see and the way that things look. on one piece of paper we divided it into day and night, and I challenged my class to draw the way things look during the day and during the night.

From _____ the kids colored stars in with the correct colors. Never can have too much practice! =]

The class painted their own planets and stars, and we made a galaxy in our hallway!

In journal my class wrote about what planet in our solar system they would go to.

While my class wrote in their journals, the older children filled out these reading response pages to the books that we read.

We made number constellations. After choosing and writing a number on a square of blue construction paper, the kids took a pencil and poked holes along the number or on the points. When they were hung up on the window, you could see the constellations! So cool!

Using play dough the kids made moonscapes and other space shapes.

We watched Wall-e!

Our song of the week was "Climb Aboard the Spaceship" to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

"Just Like Me" is a great game when a child is feeling a little bit sad or just to get the class feeling like a group! I start by modeling with a few statements, i.e, I like vanilla ice cream. If a child also like vanilla ice cream, they stand up and yell, "just like me!" After I model a few statements like that, I will pick a few children to be the leader. It's so cool to see them thinking about what they want to say!

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

We played "Crocodile by the Lake". I found the idea for this game last year and adapted it to be my own. I turned a box into a crocodile with bulletin and construction paper, then filled it with little cards that have a letter, number or shape on them. The children have to reach into the crocodile's mouth (while he's sleeping of course), pull out a card and name what's there. Also hidden in the belly of the crocodile though are SNAP cards (the crocodile wakes up and SNAPS his mouth shut!). Once we pull three SNAP cards, the game is over!

The Weather Changed" is a fun game. The kids decide on movements for 5 different weathers before we start. I start as the Weather Person and go through the different weather, while we change the movements. Then the kids get a turn as the weather person!

We played "Body Drumming". Using only our bodies, we do different motions to make sound and rhythm. I model first and either make a pattern for the children to follow or I have them follow a sequence of 3 or 4 motions. Then I will pick a few children to be the leaders. I love this activity because it's something a little different, you can't get "out" and it's fun to see them trying to focus on when the motion is going to change.

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]