Pumpkins-The Investigaion

The kids have been begging me to start exploring pumpkins, because my husband surprised us by buying a variety of pumpkins to decorate our classroom this fall. During our Exploration time, some started observing and documenting on their own! 

Some noticed patterns on the pumpkins, or made patterns with pumpkins.  Some documented what they looked like as they were displayed. They made a connection to our color inquiry by pointing out the different shades of orange!  During station time, they measured pumpkins by weight and height and documented what they noticed. 

We watched and read many videos and books about pumpkins. We all explored the outside of the pumpkins, noticed the different parts and documented what we noticed by drawing a picture, labeling the parts, and writing what we noticed about the outside of their pumpkins.  They also noticed that pumpkins can be different colors such as red, blue, green, yellow, orange and striped!  

Next, we explored the inside of the pumpkin. They loved to feel the insides. They documented the inside like we did the outside, labeling the parts and writing something they noticed. 

They are taking their documentation very seriously! Some making sure they used the exact colors to match the pumpkins!

The kids wanted to cut open the biggest pumpkin to see how many seeds it had in it. Most of the kids felt that the biggest pumpkin would have the most seeds. We picked out a medium sized and a small sized pumpkin also and had the kids make predictions about which would have the most seeds and why they thought so.  We cut them open and many were happy to dig the seeds out!

We grouped the seeds from each pumpkin into groups of ten. 

Each table helped by counting their seeds by 10's.  Every time we got to 100, we made a tally.  We looked at the tallies and figured out how many groups of 100 we had and added the extra. They were surprised by the results! The biggest pumpkin did not have the most seeds! The medium pumpkin had 570, the big one had 490, and the small one had 460.  We recorded the tallies and numbers, but I did not get a photo!

They came to the conclusion that the size of the pumpkin had no relation to the number of seeds! They also noticed that the size of the pumpkin did reflect the size of the seeds inside.  The biggest pumpkin had the biggest seeds, the smallest one had the smallest seeds, etc!  They are some very observant kids!

Next week, we will finish our pumpkin investigation and work on a couple projects. One will be the life cycle of the pumpkin.  Another thing they have learned about pumpkins is that you can make many different things to eat out of pumpkins!  In class, we will be making pumpkin pie and....believe it or not...pumpkin soup!  They want to make the soup more than anything else! I will post about all of this next week!

Noticing Learning Opportunities During Play

The more I explore play based learning, the more I see how the other parts of the curriculum can be covered during their play...not to mention the practice they get in developing the 21st Century Skills they need to be successful in life such as being a team player, problem solving, conflict resolution, collaboration, decision making, communication, and responsibility.  It makes me realize that when play is taken away, the opportunities to truly practice those life-long learning skills in real situations is also taken away!  Below I have many examples of how learning takes place during play!

They create plans during exploration time. They have been learning that to be successful, you need a plan, focus and persistence.  They are working toward creating plans that consist of a picture representation of what they will create, labels, lists of materials needed and directions to follow.  We have just started creating plans this week and I think they are off to a good start. Here are a few examples of their plans. 

They can also work together as a team on a plan. One child draws the plan as they discuss it. Another creates a list of materials needed. Another can write the directions. Below is a picture representation that a team of three worked on after a Lock Down Drill to create a castle using 3-D shapes.  They showed me after it was finished how it worked. They rolled a heavy wooden sphere off of the turret. It fell on an intruder that was trying to break in.  They collaborated and problem soved until it worked!  It worked brilliantly!

Here is a list of materials and a list of responsibilities one team created when planning to build a zoo.

I was amazed at how organized they were! They started out by collecting materials, including paper for the sky and a bright orange gourd to use as a sun.  They created trees, play areas for the animals using rocks, ramps for them to slide down...it is still a work in progress!  Below, you can see them collecting materials in one place and creating the trees for their zoo.

This picture shows them adding the sky and the sun. 

 I will add a picture of their zoo to this post after they finish it. 

They also used writing to show me they are loyal to my favorite college football team, the Michigan State Spartans!

I am amazed at how much writing and learning experiences happen during during play!  Here are some more examples of things that have been going on as we played!

We let our praying mantis go!  They loved how he blended in with his surroundings! A great example of camouflage that caused a great discussion as they observed it.

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Our playground was taken over by thousands of ladybugs! They were all over our play equipment and us! When we came back inside I noticed a bunch of the kids had tightly closed fists so I brought out our insect viewer and had them put them in so we could observe them. 

I set them up with materials to help them explore them further if they choose. 

One small group opened up a book fair like the one our school had a few weeks ago!

Some researched things on their own that they were interested in.

One group opened up a restaurant. 

Some relaxed with a good book. 

Some documented what they noticed about pumpkins. 

They worked those fine motor skills creating sculptures with clay. I love the mermaid one friend created!

Some chose to practice Numeracy skills.  

I am having so much fun observing and taking part in the things that they are doing!  I love seeing their brains at work while they play and explore!  Our pumpkin exploration is still in progress! I will write about how our investigation is going next week!

How To Make Paper- An Investigation and a Project

As we wondered about leaves and trees, the kids began to wonder about how paper is made from trees. They also wondered what else is made from trees. We started investigating how paper is made. 

We read a book and watched a video on YouTube that showed us the whole process from cutting down the trees to rolling the newly made paper into giant tubes. 

When we initially read that they first had to cut the trees down, the kids did a collective gasp! They didn't seem to like that. This brought us to a discussion about wasting paper and how we don't want to lose so many trees.  When I told them we could recycle paper by using old paper to make new paper, they were intigued. Of course, when I asked them if they would like to explore how this is done and try it ourselves, they were very interested!

We watched three different videos on YouTube for the next couple of days that showed us how to make paper out of old scraps. They gave us some good ideas and showed us what materials we needed. We created a list. 

We collected the materials and then got to work. 

They wanted leaves to crush up into their paper. 

The kids collected thistle, flowers, seeds and grass to put in their paper. A couple friends got a good fine motor workout by pulling the thistle seeds out of thier base!  Of coarse they wanted glitter for their paper!  Everything is prettier with glitter, right?  My husband stapled a screen to a frame to create the tool used for making the pulp into paper. 

They started out by picking out paper from our scrap bins and tearing it up into little pieces. They worked on this for an hour without one complaint and bragged about how strong their finger muscles were getting!

They dumped their scraps into the blender and added leaves or grass, then covered it with water. 

The next step was to blend it to a pulp. They loved being in control of the blender button!

They poured the pulp onto the screen.

They added leaves, glitter or flowers.

They let the water drain out of it and soaked some of the water out by pressing a sponge over the top of the pulp. 

We flipped it over onto a piece of felt and the kids pressed it gently with a sponge to get the water out. 

When we lifted up the screen, it looked like this!  It was still wet and mushy and had to dry overnight before it was stiff enough to take off of the felt. 

As we were making paper, some students decided to create lists to show who made paper and who still needed to make paper.  Talk about purposeful writing!

You can see where it says "Keira has made paper.  Emma has made paper.  Sophia has not made paper."  I love it!

Here is the beautiful paper they created!  We are going to hang them from he branches in our room to display them and add more beauty to our classroom environment!

The kids have been wanting to explore pumpkins after my husband brought a bunch into our room a few weeks ago. We recorded everything they wondered about pumpkins on Friday. This weekend, I will come up with experiences to help them investigate and find out the answers to their questions!