This is the first year I'll be doing "Pumpkin Week" with my kiddos! {Part 1}

I love this time of the year, so much great learning going on!  I especially love all the learning that comes with pumpkins.  So I've declared next week as "Pumpkin Week" in my 1/2 class.  It's perfect because we just started our graphing and data unit for both grades.  And to be honest, the math book isn't the most engaging way to teach this concept.  So...I created this!!!

Each day, my scholars will be participating in different literacy and math tasks related to pumpkins.  I'm so lucky to have so many amazing parents this year so they have covered all of the supplies we need for this engaging week!

For management reasons, I'm going to staple the entire book together and we'll work on various parts throughout the week!

Monday: Students will observe our class pumpkin and fill out the adjective section of the book.  My kiddos lack the knowledge of parts of speech, so I'm hammering this hard with them!

Then, as a class, we're going to vote on our favorite pumpkin face.

Check out the full product in my TPT store.  It has the number sentence page where students will answer the questions based on the data from their graph.

Then, students work on the estimation part on their own or with a partner.  I put the pumpkin up high so they actually have to estimate, rather than counting the lines. Save the estimating the seeds part until tomorrow.

Tuesday: This is probably one of the most exciting parts of the week because it's a hands-on activity.  We get to carve the pumpkin.  In the past, I have students sit in a giant circle around the pumpkin, which is placed on butcher paper.  This is where we check our estimation.  I bring in a scale and we weigh the pumpkin, count the lines and the seeds.  Now, let me give you a quick tip.  I let all students {who want to participate} grab a hand-full of pumpkin goo and seeds and place it in a bowl.  Once we've got all the seeds out, I reinforce logical reasoning by counting out 10 pumpkin seeds and place them in a pile on butcher paper.  From there, students use that as a reference and estimate the seeds.  Once we've washed the goo off our hands, students write their estimation and then we get to counting, kind of!  I've learned the hard way and have counted all of the seeds.  Not fun!!!  So...I take a  handful that looks like 10 and start making piles.  Once all the seeds are in piles of "10," we count them by 10s and write down that as our actual number.

I place all the seeds in a baggie and send home with a wonderful parent to bake for us.  Then, students move onto the adjective section where they write adjectives about the way the pumpkin felt.  

Now...the second best part, carving the pumpkin!!!  When we're finished, students write about how to carve a pumpkin.

That's it for now, I'll update more tomorrow about how we're going to do "Pumpkin Week." Lots

of report cards to finish and conference prep.