From Pumpkin Plants to Herbs to Pumpkin Plants: A Year Long Project

Last October, after counting pumpkin seeds, the kids wanted to plant some to grow some pumpkins. We planted some next to our rotting pumpkin so that we could see the new grow while the old decomposed.

They sprouted! The kids documented what they noticed in a pumpkin journal. 





We were worried they would not survive Fall Break, but they did, and the sprouts turned to vines! 



Miraculously, our vines even survived Winter Break! I have a feeling some wonderful custodians might have watered them for us. Then buds formed!





Finally flowers bloomed. 







We faithfully documented every stage of our pumpkin plant. They knew without bees, pumpkins couldn’t form, so we researched and decided to self pollinate them. Unfortunately, we could never get both a male and a female flower to open up at the same time.



We noticed the vines were looking thinner, but then in April, a whole bunch of new sprouts popped up! We nurtured those, and when they flowered, it was Spring, so we took it outside so that the bees could do their job...but then we came back the next day...

To find our vines destroyed! The kids were heartbroken! We had been taking care of these plants for months, trying to get pumpkins to start. 



They were heartbroken.



Another teacher caught the culprit and showed us photo evidence... it was a squirrel! 



I took our the rotted pumpkin so no more squirrels would trample our plants. We decided to plant something new. A discussion about herbs started so we decided to plant some. 



We plated lemon balm, lavender, sweet basil, and rosemary. We already had peppermint in our school garden. 

We checked on them every day and all of the sudden, giant pumpkin sprouts popped up! I’m guessing they were planted at the same time, but are definitely a different breed of pumpkin because they are huge!

We tasted all our herbs! They really were fascinated by them! If we had more time, we would have made tea!









Peppermint was the favorite, but if we didn’t count that, most preferred rosemary! Lemon Bslm was a close second. 

Our new vines are growing bigger by the day and now have flower buds on them! I told the kids I’ll take them home and keep their families updated on their progress over the summer! This was the best way for them to learn the pumpkin life cycle, even if our plants didn’t fully cooperate with us! So that is how our pumpkin plant investigation in 7 months turned into an herb interest, then back to a pumpkin plant interest!

Inquiring About the Sky: Part 2

Continuing our Sky Inquiry, we studied the sun next! I always love how amazed they are when they realize it is actually a star and it only looks bigger than the others because it is so close to us! They were also amazed at the close up pictures and all the different warm colors that were on the sun. It wasn’t just all orange or all yellow. We used spin art to show this concept. 

We made a display to show what we learned about the sun! 

They wrote facts and also wrote about how many times they have traveled all the way around the sun! 

We talked about it’s energy and heat and all the different ways it helps the earth. I told them we would put chocolate out to see if it would melt. It was cloudy, but they were thin clouds. We debated about whether or not the chocolate could melt with this filtered sunlight. Most thought it would still melt! We set it out during recess to see what would happen!

They did not melt in the slightest! We tried again on another day. This time the sun was bright, but the air was little cooler. They were not sure it would melt until they noticed they could still feel the heat of the sun on their faces even though the air was cool. This time the chocolate chips did melt! We dipped pretzels in the melted chocolate for a snack.

We also investigated the moon! This group was all about the different phases. They were fascinated about the different phases of the moon! We used art to let them show what they noticed about the moon phases.

Next we’re the stars. They were not quite as interested so we did not spend a lot of time on the stars. They learned some facts but were most amazed that they were not all white or yellow! They learned that the color told how hot the stars were. They also were interested in constellations. I incorporated reading by having them make sight word constellations and hanging them in the window. The kids could look through paper tube telescopes to read them! 

I hung Van Gough’s Starry Night up to inspire some Starry night art! They turned out beautiful!

Here is our display of the stars, along with clay moons that the kids made.

One of our friends brought in pictures of galaxies and nebulas that the kids thought were absolutely beautiful! We set out oil pastels and black paper and let them show what they noticed. 





Last were the planets! This was their favorite! I wish we had more time so that we could have done a large scale project but end of year testing got in the way of that. Their interest in planets was huge!! We decided to make an informational book about the planets and share our books with some other classes. 

I wish we had more time! These kids now have an inquiry mindset and are asking to investigate all kinds of things! There is no way to get to them all! I am hopeful that this will continue over the summer and they can investigate their interests at home. Now it is time to start wrapping up our year and enjoy our last days together as a community.