The Life Cycle of our Pumpkin

This week the students were interested in examining the pumpkins that were given to us by the farm last week.  They worked as super scientists to describe to our classroom pumpkin all about its life cycle.  The students explained to Peter the Pumpkin how he started off as a seed that held a tiny embryo inside.  They explained in role how when its seed coat is softened by the rain and it is warmed by the sun it will begin to grow.  The students explained to the pumpkin how first the seed would grow a shoot, then a plant.  They also described how this plant would make its own food by taking in water, carbon dioxide and sunlight and turning it into oxygen and sugar.  Next, the students explained how a yellow flower would grow on the pumpkin vine.  Betty the bee came in to show the students how the flower was pollinated.  When Betty the bee drinks nectar from the flower pollen sticks to her legs.  When she flies to another flower she moves the pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part of the flower.  When she does this the flower becomes pollinated and a green pumpkin begins to grow.  This finally turns into an orange pumpkin.

The students made pumpkin puppets.  These pumpkins had a string which held the different parts of the pumpkin life cycle.  Students had to sequence these events in order.  They also worked on their fine motor skills by cutting each piece out.

Students also had the opportunity to decorate pumpkins and write about their pumpkins.  They also worked on their fine motor and letter forming skills using playdough with a pumpkin theme.

Our math focus this week used pumpkins to explore many different concepts.  Students made pumpkin faces with 2D solids and learned the names of different polygons including triangles, squares, hexagons, rhombuses and parallelograms.  They also put our pumpkins in order from biggest to smallest. Another task consisted of weighing our pumpkins and estimating how many seeds were inside and then counting them.  Students also practised writing their numbers to 20 during our daily math routine.  In addition to having sensory opportunities while the students scooped out the pumpkins, students were also able to explore a pumpkin boat themed water table.  They looked at properties such as how many objects they could put into each pumpkin to make it float or sink.

Halloween day was a fun one in our class! We were so lucky to have a ton of parent volunteers come in and help us run a series of centres throughout the day.  Students had the chance to make Halloween themed soap.  They also learned to sketch a pumpkin and make spooky bat artwork with Ms. Hyma.  Another wonderful parent volunteer taught the students about The Day of the Dead. Students went on a Halloween parade around the school and enjoyed many treats. They even worked together to follow a recipe and make roasted pumpkin seeds.