Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Smith's Blog: "Look at this big pumpkin!"

Pumpkin Interest
The pumpkin in the classroom has been a part of our curriculum for most of this week. Upon the children’s arrival last Friday, the children noticed the pumpkin on the table. Many children immediately described the size of the pumpkin. “Look at this big pumpkin!” One child noticed how dirty the pumpkin was and wanted to clean it, the children who were around agreed and began to work together on cleaning the pumpkin with soap and water. Conversations about what to do with the pumpkin began to emerge.

Emily-“Look at this big pumpkin!”

Khristos-“Are we going to eat the pumpkin?”

Emily-“It is dirty. We need to clean it!” (Emily uses a spray bottle and paper towel to clean pumpkin. Children gather near her and begin to help.)

Khristos-“What is that?” (Pointing to gooey stuff on pumpkin) “Is that blood?”

Emma- (Spraying the pumpkin with water.) “We are helping it grow!”

Owen-“We should make a Jack-o-lantern. We need a nose and eyes and a mouth!”

Jad- “We have to cut it open, get out the seeds, carve it and then put a candle in it.”

Alexa-“Then it will light up!”

Khristos-“We need to carve a scary mouth with sharp teeth.”

The exchange in dialogue between the children was insightful to hear. They all had ideas to share and respected each other by listening. We want to support the children’s thoughts about carving the pumpkin. The children have been working on mixing colors to make orange and making a plan to carve out the details on the pumpkin.

In addition, other developmental domains have been explored with the pumpkin. The children used measuring tools to measure the pumpkin. Some children used the unifix cubes or ruler to record the pumpkins height and the measuring tape to measure circumference. Next week, we will work with Ms. Finkelstein and Ms. Masserant's classroom on dissecting the pumpkin and cooking the pumpkin seeds.

Halloween Walk

The Halloween walk will take place on October 29th at 4pm. If your child does not come to school Thursday afternoon, we encourage you to bring child to the Halloween walk. If your planning on attending the Halloween walk, please make sure to sign your child out before going on the walk. Children who attend school all day, we ask that they do not wear their costumes to school. You can place their costume in their backpacks or a tote. Teachers will help children change into their costumes. Please keep all weapons and masks at home. Many children do not understand that there is a person behind the mask, and often get frightened.

Fall Weather

The weather is getting cooler. Please send your child to school with warm clothes. Here is a what your child should wear to school. Also, each child should have a spare change of clothes for accidents.