Pumpkin Patch

We had our first field trip to the pumpkin patch last Thursday. We had a blast!! There were so many things to do! We fed chickens and goats, learned about all types of pumpkins and how they grow, and how to milk a cow. We also learned about vegetables that grow under the ground. We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch where we each got to pick our very own pumpkin. Some of us got big pumpkins, some of us got small ones, some of us got dirty pumpkins, and some of us got clean pumpkins. It was so fun being able to choose the one we liked best. We even got to paint our pumpkins! Our class also built our own first grade scarecrow. We had to work together to make sure he was "stuffed" just right. We played in the hay when we finished. This was a great trip! Check out our pictures to see all the fun things we did!!

Pumpkins

This week begins our pumpkin unit!! We are so excited to learn more about pumpkins. Monday we started a KWL chart about pumpkins (a chart showing what we Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned about pumpkins). We already know SO much, but there's always room to learn more!! Yesterday, we learned the life cycle of a pumpkin. We found out it is very similar to the life cycle of an apple. We have also been writing about pumpkins and using our imaginations about what would happen if we planted a pumpkin seed in our garden. We have learned about estimation. We all estimated how much a pumpkin weighs, its height, and how many seeds are inside. Towards the end of the week we will find out if our estimations were correct. Today we actually had a chance to look at the embryo inside of a pumpkin seed. We observed and discussed our observations as a group. We are going to the pumpkin patch this Thursday!! It will be our first field trip in first grade. Keep checking back to read about all the fun things we are doing with pumpkins!!

More Apples

This entire week has been focused on apples. We each brought in an apple and shared it with the class. In Math, we graphed apples by their color. We then colored our own graph to show our results. Of course, the red apple won! We also did an apple investigation using our apple. This was fun because we were able to observe our apple from the inside and the outside. We recorded its smell and taste as well. We also did a taste test and voted on which apple we liked the best (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith), Gold Delicious won! Yesterday we used Apple Jacks for our Math lesson in sorting and addition. In groups we also read different versions of Johnny Appleseed aloud to the class. Today we made our very own homemade applesauce!! It was so good! We used only 4 ingredients to create it! We thought it was much better than store bought applesauce. We have had so much fun learning all about apples this week!!