The Pumpkin Patch

Last Wednesday all of the kindergarten classes went on a field trip together to visit "Miller's Farm and Market" to go pumpkin picking! The children were all eager to get there as this was a first trip to a pumpkin patch for a lot of them. 

http://www.millersfarmandmarket.ca/ 

Off we go! Lot's of smiling faces anxiously awaiting our arrival to the farm!

On the way we talked about some questions that we've been discussing in class leading up to our trip. How many pumpkins can grow on a farm ( The answer, A LOT!) Will there be any white pumpkins? Will they have any tiny pumpkins?  How heavy will they be? 

Getting comfy on some big barrels of hay on our tractor ride to the over to the patch!

It was wonderful to have parents come out and volunteer and share the experience with our class! Thanks guys! :)

It was a lot of fun to drive through the corn fields! We noticed up close that they are very tall and we could see corn growing too! 

WE MADE IT! 

Time to go explore!

Most children are naturally curious about their surroundings. They have an interest in exploring and investigating to see how things work and why things happen. Children have an innate sense of wonder and awe and a natural desire to explore and learn.

Dissecting the pumpkins inside and out! We noticed that this pumpkin looked different from the rest. Norma-Jean is showing some children a rotting pumpkin which some friends found "yucky"!

We learned in class that when pumpkins grow they first bloom into large bright yellow flowers. After spending time in class looking at books and pictures about pumpkins it was very exciting for us to explore the patch and see these discoveries up close. 

Did you know that pumpkin flowers are edible?

More exploration, we discovered that as well as using pumpkins for carving Jack-O-Lanterns and cooking delicious treats, a pumpkin can also be a home for worms to live under. 

We found a lot of  different sized pumpkins. It was fun to determine how heavy one was from another.

This one looks like the perfect size!

Going pumpkin picking can sometimes turn out to be quite the dirty job but somebody's got to do it!

Great job boys!

Frank Miller is teaching the children how to sweep so they can help all their mom's and dad's tidy up at home! 

It was really interesting for us to see how we can make a tool we use daily using natural resources.

Frank Miller is showing the children how brooms that we use to sweep with can be made out of broom corn.

We were lucky to enjoy some freshly picked apples right from Millers's farm while we listened to some SpoOoOoOoky Halloween stories.

The apples were incredibly juicy and delicious!

Once we returned to school it was time to measure our pumpkins, these fun and engaging activities help to  encourage numeracy development.

How many squares high is your pumpkin? How wide?

We had quite the variety of shapes, shades and sizes! 

 While on pumpkin was measure at 2 squares high another was 9! The children enjoyed comparing their pumpkins to determine differences and similarities. No two pumpkins were alike.

Once we measured our pumpkins, we documented our findings by tracing the squares used for measuring. Using manipulative tools to construct and discover mathematical concepts in a hands-on, meaningful, and connected ways allows students to create concrete representations of abstract concepts as they form their own mathematical understandings.

Ode to a Pumpkin

I think that I shall never see,
A pumpkin so big as a tree.
A gourd that I could gut and carve
Providing food so I'd never starve.
A pumpkin so big it would be
The scariest Jack-O-Lantern all would see.
Or, I could live in it every day
Until it all would rot away.
Oh, it would be so grand to own
The biggest pumpkin ever grown.

The Nature of Things

With our hectic and busy schedules, many of us don't spend as much time connecting with nature as we should. Time spent in nature or working with natural materials contributes to your child's healthy development in all domains. Nature experiences encourage children to develop their problem solving skills, increase their physical activity, improve their social interactions and can teach them to be compassionate and caring towards all living things. 

 Exploring their natural environment nurtures a sense of environmental stewardship. People will only preserve and protect what they know and understand so children must be provided with opportunities to know and explore nature.  

Measuring and documenting the different sized leaves with centi-cubes. 

Shading the perimeter of leaves.

Holding up her quirky leaf puppet.

Some beautiful snapshots of the girls mid flight trying to catch the falling leaves.

Unstructured outdoor time allows for spontaneous learning which promotes discovery and creativity.

 

Big smiles wearing his special leaf crown!

Using the puppet theater to create a puppet show with his leaf puppets. 

Leaf printing using paint and rollers.

Checking the weather. 

Sketching the sunflowers. 

  

Exposing children to natural environments like our Back to Nature site allows for hands on learning and inquiry. We are so fortunate to have this beautiful, green area at our school!

The children express what they know about the nature through finger painting beautiful fall trees.

It's fun to get messy!

Looking back at the beautiful nature photo's they took during our photography workshop with Kate.

Positive Feedback

Positive feedback in the form of comments is greatly appreciated. Underneath each post there's a link you can click to open a chat-box to add comments. You can use this space to ask questions about certain photo's, to give feedback from yourself or your child or to simply praise us for our wonderful blogging skills. Take advantage of this interactive, easy way to keep connected! 

Busy Builders

Our class is over-flowing with busy builders; there have been some magnificent structures built since the school year started. During activity time, the children have access to shelves full of different building materials. These open-ended materials allow for the children full creative range when it comes to what they chose to make. The things that they build often represent structures or places that they already know. The children express their ideas and knowledge through their work.They are extremely proud of what they create and often request a photo be taken before they take it apart. 

Creating intricate structures forces the children to be gentle with the materials in order to preserve their work. As they build, they must determine how and where to place each block in order to keep their structure sturdy. Each time the building collapses, the children are recognizing the relationship between cause and effect and then using problem solving skills to rebuild it sturdier. The children often cooperate and collaborate when building. These concepts and skills will become more developed and refined each time the children build. 

 

The Snail

The children were all busy at work doing different activities when one child came rushing over to say that she had found a snail. The children gathered around to see and sure enough, there it was, hidden between the cracks of one of the building gears. We decided to keep it to study for a while; we made a jar into a miniature snail habitat with sticks and bark and leaves for him to munch on.

 Our little guest sparked lots of different questions. What does it eat? Is it a boy or a girl? 

Some of the children were fascinated watching the snail slowly move along my hand.

During it's stay in our room, our snail friend got to ride a polar bear!

The children thought that the snail may be getting dry, so we gave him a little pool to hang out in. He promptly escaped the pool. 

They were absolutely thrilled to let take turns letting the snail slowly move across their hands. It gave them a chance to get a closer look.

The children got out the magnifying glasses to take a closer look at our little visitor. 

A couple of times we thought we had lost it, but he always seemed to be hiding inside a piece of the rolled bark. 

Of course, on Friday we said farewell to it and sent it back to it's natural habitat. I wonder what interesting creature we will discover next?