Pumpkin Life Cycle

Happy Monday! This week we are learning about pumpkins. Today's focus was the life cycle of a pumpkin. Before we learned anything about pumpkins, each child was asked where they thought pumpkins grow: on trees, bushes, under the dirt, or on a vine. By the end of the week, your child should be able to tell you that pumpkins grow on a vine.

Our story today was Pumpkin, Pumpkin. The story helped us to learn about how a pumpkin grows starting from a seed. We learned some new vocabulary, such as sprout.

We practiced sequencing the life cycle of a pumpkin. Miss McCabe kept forgetting the order, but her 4K friends were great helpers! They came up and helped Miss McCabe put the pictures in the correct order!

Then we visited centers. Ask your child which center he/she visited today.

The first center made a booklet about the life cycle of a pumpkin. When the booklet comes home, take some time to read it together!

The second center listened to the story Five Little Pumpkins. Then they made their own picture of the rhyme. These will look great displayed outside our classroom!

The third center did two projects. First, they practiced writing their names on each bump of the pumpkin. We worked on letter formation and identifying the letters in our names. Afterwards, they counted pumpkin seeds onto numbered pumpkins. This worked on number recognition and counting objects with one-to-one correspondence.

During playtime, several children worked on painting pumpkins onto the letter Pp for their alphabet book page. They also enjoyed using magnifying glasses to explore pumpkins, corn, and gourds in the sensory table. There were also scoops for playing in the corn.

During snack, we used the air popper to make popcorn in honor of our new letter Pp! Yum! :)

At closing circle, we learned all about the letter Pp. We read some stories that helped us learn some words that start with our new letter and found the letter Pp in our alphabet. We discussed if it was at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the alphabet.

We also met our new feely phonic friend - pretty pink princess p! We said hello by tracing over our new friend with our finger and making the /p/ sound.

We also played "Pass the Pumpkin," which is a little like the game of Hot Potato. When Miss McCabe stopped singing, whoever was holding the pumpkin got to reach in and pull out a picture card. We named the picture and the letter it started with. All of the pictures in the pumpkin started with the /p/ sound.

Since we will be reviewing numbers 0-3 this week, there will not be a number crown. The children were disappointed so instead we made our own pretty pink letter Pp crowns so we could be princesses and princes! The afternoon session did not have time, but it will be offered as a choice throughout the rest of the week.

Tomorrow is the start of PALS testing. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest so he/she can do his/her best tomorrow. There will be a substitute teacher in the classroom while I administer the assessment to each child.

Have a great evening!