We have had quite a fun introduction to fall this year! With lots of cooking, autumn sensory play, seasonal themed art projects, and new songs like “My Pumpkin Vine” to sing each day we have filled our classroom with the spirit of the Harvest Season!
Thanks to many families and teachers donating different kinds of pumpkins both great and small, we have cultivated a lovely little pumpkin patch right here in our room!
Each child has responded to the pumpkin patch in a different way. Some like to roll the pumpkins, pick them up, compare and contrast each pumpkin by weight and experiment with how much force it takes to complete various actions like rolling, lifting, swinging, or simply see how long they can hold it up in the air… it’s become a little like toddler weight lifting! Some friends like to line up and organize the pumpkins over and over in different ways. They will tell us, “This is the daddy, this is the mommy, and this is the baby”. This is kind of 2-year-old code for “large, medium, and small”. We’ve been using these awesome teachable moments to learn new vocabulary through describing the characteristics of the pumpkins. There are many words used to describe size, color, shape, weight, and texture. We like to encourage our youngsters to explore all these components of the tools in our room- in this case the tools are pumpkins. Adorable, festive, fall pumpkins. (If you would like to donate pumpkins or gourds to Room 5, be our guest! We have plenty of room in the patch!) We are not just working on language and literacy with our pumpkin patch. We are also growing in physical development like exercising our gross motor functions through lifting, tossing, and rolling pumpkins. We are learning early math concepts through sorting, classifying, ordering, and counting our pumpkins. We are also learning social and emotional skills through sharing, conflict negotiation, and through personal conversations like, “I have a baby pumpkin at my house and my Daddy has a pumpkin too!”. Each child has shared a little bit about the way their family celebrates fall while playing in our pumpkin patch.
October also had some great cooking projects including personal pizza week, where each child prepped, baked, and devoured their own personal English muffin pizza! We got to practice fine motor development when we spread the sauce, sprinkled the cheese, picked out and placed each topping, and finally pulled it all apart at the snack table! We learned about different tastes like salty, sweet, and spicy with our olives, pineapples, and pepperoni. We practiced a very important fruit of the spirit- self control- while putting our creations together and not simply eating all the ingredients right there at the table (I get it, pineapples taste good right of the can to me too!). It was a great learning experience that ended in full tummies and happy kids.
We can’t wait to share more of our fall fun at PCPS. For now, have a blessed day and keep checking back for more!
