Pumpkins

What a fun and messy week of investigating pumpkins!  We've had so much fun learning about and exploring pumpkins this week.  These little kiddos are becoming great scientists...making great predictions, taking great measurements, and learning to use scientific tools.  :)  Hope you enjoy the pics!

Pumpkin Investigations

We counted how many lines there were on the pumpkin.

We looked at smaller pumpkins and predicted which one would weigh more on our scale and why.  Then we weighed our larger pumpkin on a scale to see how much it weighed.

 We measured to see how tall our big pumpkin was from the bottom to the top of the stem.  Then we measured it in cubes by counting together to see how many cubes tall it was.

We used our smaller pumpkins to see if they would sink or float in a bowl of water.  Our class was split almost in half with their predictions of whether it would sink or float.  I heard some very smart reasoning behind their decisions too.  :)

We painted pumpkins with different colors.  This was a little tricky for these little hands to hold small pumpkins and move them around to paint them in the process.  Great fine motor for these kiddos though!

 We read our poem "Five Little Pumpkins" and counted out 5 pumpkins to stick on our poem paper.  Then, we watched the video with the song about this same poem.  Click on the link below to check it out.
Five Little Pumpkins Sitting On a Gate
Super cute!

We colored some pumpkins.

We dotted some pumpkins.

Some of us even made pumpkins out of playdough. :)

Our shape of the week was a square, so we used our pumpkins like a geoboard by creating squares with rubber bands and push pins.  Such a cool way to learn a new shape!

Now it's time for pumpkin carving!

We discovered a pumpkin full of strings, seeds, and water.  It was a little gross for some kiddos, and it was a little messy for Mrs. Hannah, but it was totally worth it!

Two triangle eyes, a triangle nose, a smile, a candle...

 ....and we have a jack-o-lantern!

This was a great connection to our Bible story about letting our light shine for God just like a jack-o-lantern.

Here are a few of the science items we bought with our fundraiser money to start building our science centers in our classrooms.  There are magnifying glasses, bugs encased in plastic, glasses with different colored lenses, protective goggles, oil/water mixtures in jars, etc.  Thanks so much for those of you that donated to our fundraiser this year!  This is just the beginning of the items we're planning to purchase for the classroom.

We also purchased Magna-Tiles for each classroom too.  You can build so many cool things with these magnetic shapes.  The kids absolutely love them!

The lenses in these glasses are too cute.  They get such a kick out of looking at things through "rose colored glasses".  Maybe we could learn from that!? :)

The rainy days kept us inside this week, but we had a great time in the Minds in Motion room!