As you prepare to read Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell and begin the ever popular pumpkin decomposition/life cycle experiment, here's a little something to tie your experiment area together so your jar of eventual sludge will make sense to an outsider looking in. 😉

I created this set because I wanted a banner to display the week I taught the lesson, but something smaller for the rest of the year that I could place near our pumpkin jar.

This week went by way too fast! I cannot believe it is already second quarter and I'm still begging for more teaching time at the end of each day. Some weeks I feel like this is my first year teaching all over again, except there aren't as many cutesy projects. :)

We have had so much fun this week! We celebrated our 40th day of school on Monday, had a pumpkin patch field trip on Tuesday, 3D pumpkin labeling on Wednesday, testing and pumpkin observations on Thursday and more testing and birthday celebrating on Friday.

One of the perks of teaching the same grade level my daughter is in is that I get to go on all her field trips and participate in class activities with her. I had to include the picture of her above on her field trip to the pumpkin patch. I love that girl to pieces! It was crazy windy, so her hair was all over the place. :)

For our 3D pumpkin labeling project, we felt like we needed something that was fun and cute, but still helped us stay in line with the Common Core and our state's Science expectations. This is what we came up with.

I have the directions and printables available in my TpT store for only $1. Just click on the picture below to take you to my store.

 
Today is my birthday and yesterday I had lots of super sweet treats from my secret pal, teacher friends and students. One of my students and his mom brought me a pecan pie fresh from the oven! I'm so blessed!



All three of our Kindergarten classes combined the results of our How many jack-o-lanterns tall are you? graph.



If you don't have a die cut machine to make your pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns for this activity, click on the picture below to download this freebie from TpT! It includes pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in case you can't use Halloween themed items in your classroom.

This week seemed to fly by! We had lots of special visitors for Fire Safety Week, including our local Fire Department, Smokey the Bear and Pluggie the Fire Hydrant (American Red Cross). We also had Professional Development training day on Friday, so we've been very busy.

My co-workers and I have been working on the next three weeks worth of lessons to help get us through the end of October and beginning of November. I am loving having two hours a week of plan time with my fellow Kindergarten teachers.

While I was thinking about what to do for our Pumpkins unit, I came up with a song for Science to help teach students the parts of the pumpkin. However, I didn't have any cutesy graphics to go with it. So, I contacted Denyse at Scrappin' Doodles with my song and asked if she could make some graphics to go with it. I got an email from her that she was finished today and the graphics were absolutely PERFECT for what I was needing! Be sure to check out all of Denyse's cute designs at www.ScrappinDoodles.com.

Then, Parts of a Pumpkin Literacy Mini Unit was born! I also added to the unit an emergent reader, a labeling worksheet and the song in pocket chart form with pictures. Feel free to check it out in my TpT store by clicking the picture below. It is only $3.

My Kindergarten students love making predictions about anything and everything. So, we carried it over into making predictions about whether the pumpkin we picked at the pumpkin patch would sink or float. I had all of my students write their names in the column they were predicting. I had to use 3 pages stapled/taped together and mounted on construction paper. My students still write fairly large with markers. :)

Sink or Float

We had lots of fun today trying to decide whether or not our pumpkin would sink or float. Here's a graph I used with the kids. It is similar to the apple graph we used for our apple unit. I will add the prediction chart the kids added their names to later.

Sink or Float Pumpkin Graph

I use this number line with my students to practice sequencing the numbers from 0-10. We color the pumpkins and the kids glue them in order on a sentence strip. It's great practice and the kids like taking them home. I have included a color copy, as well as, a black and white copy.

Pumpkin Counting Line_Color

Pumpkin Counting Line

Can you tell I can't live without DJ Inkers and Carson-Dellosa clip art? I have to say, I love their work!!! I know it's pretty obvious from all the printables that I create using clip art from one or both companies. I just purchased another set called Harvest Time, so I created this emergent reader to share.Our class is going to the pumpkin patch next week, so this will be a perfect fit for when we return. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Pumpkin Patch Emergent Reader

I had fun creating this book today while my kids were in special classes. I plan to print the book on cardstock and then cut all but the pages in half, except the back page. I will then make sure the numbers and pumpkins are out of numerical order and bind the left side of the book (numbers) and bind the right side of the book (pumpkins). I will try to take a picture and add it later. For now, here is the printable if you'd like to use it.

My Pumpkin Number Flip Book