Hello All!!!! First of all, yes, I know what time of year it is. It's almost christmas time and here I am blogging about PUMPKIN activities. But the truth is, I ended up moving on Halloween day and I just did not have time to blog about all the fun things we did during October, but I couldn't let these fun pumpkin activities go undocumented! So just look through these and save them in your brain-holes until next year.
growing pumpkin seeds
The first activity "A" and I did was grow pumpkin seeds. We carved pumpkins with family and we saved a few of the seeds (the ones that didn't get TOASTED and GOBBLED UP!). I got a clear jar and wetted a paper towel. I explained to A that he needed to take care of the plants everyday for the plants to go. We talked about living things and what living things need. Water, air and sunshine. So everyday he had to make sure that he watered his seeds and that they were sitting in a nice sunny place. I love doing this activity in a glass jar with a paper towel instead of dirt because this way you can observe the plant AS SOON as it starts sprouting, roots and all.
This is a GREAT way to study "parts of the plant", which just happens to be on our October curriculum.
I also love doing this activity because it is a great exercise in patience. The seeds didn't sprout everyday. A had to make sure that he watered them everyday, even though we wasn't getting any immediate gratification from it. Through patience he eventually go rewarded with some great sproutlings!
On another note, I learned a lot from these little sprouts as well. We planted 4 seeds in all. It took about a week for the first one to sprout. Just one of the seeds! The rest were sitting there doing nothing. I thought, "Darn, they must be duds, they aren't sprouting at the same time as this one." I was about to throw them out.....but decided to give them a little more time. And lo and behold, a few days later, another one sprouted! and a few days after that, another sprouted!!! Given enough time and the proper environment, these seeds flourished and grew. They were from the same pumpkin, had the exact same environment, yet they did not sprout at the same time. They were unique individuals, at least, as uniquely individual as a seed can be. But you see what I'm getting at, right?
How often do we see students in our class that just aren't growing at the same pace as other students and we think there is something wrong with them? That they are a lost cause, perhaps defective, maybe just lazy? When in fact, something inside them in stirring. We just need to give them love, patience and the correct environment, and in their own time, THEIR OWN UNIQUE TIME, they will sprout and flourish and grow just as strongly as the other.
We need to respect that each "seed" has an innate timeline that they are following.
ok, enough of that. onto playdough!!! We made Home-made pumpkin scented playdough. I thought, why stop there! Let's make Jack-o-Lanterns out of this pumpkin playdough! So i put this tray together.
Materials:
Black foam craft sheets cut into various sizes of circles, triangles and squares
pipe cleaners, cut and twisted
pumpkin scented playdough
Avery had a blast making a whole family of jack-o-lanterns.
The last activity is a math one! We saved some of the toasted pumpkin seeds (no oil and salt on these ones) and I used those Foam Craft sheets I love so much. Each pumpkin has a number in it's mouth (hard to see in the picture) and A's task was to give each pumpkin the correct number of seeds back.
I love using these foam sheets for cards and counters because on the back you can add a control so that the child can check their work when they are done. He can even lay the seeds on top of the outlines I drew to make sure.
Well, that's it for us! Hopefully the next post will be more thematically appropriate to the season! As always, please leave any thoughts our comments you have!
