Big Pumpkin

Happy Tuesday! Have you ever seen a square pumpkin before? Today we read the story The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. In the story, Spookley was sad because he was not round like the other pumpkins. Suddenly a storm comes and the pumpkins start rolling out a hole in the fence. Spookley did not roll because he was square. Instead, he was able to save the day! Ask your child how Spookley saved the day!

After reading the story, we spent some time reviewing shapes. Then we visited the remaining two centers that were left after yesterday.

The first center made pumpkin names. We practiced writing our names on each bump of the pumpkin and worked on identifying the letters in our names.

The second center made their letter Pp alphabet book page. We painted orange thumbprint pumpkins on the letter Pp and added stems and vines.

The third center made a pumpkin life cycle booklet to take home and read to you!

The fourth center practiced the nursery rhyme, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" and hunted for letter Pp's in the nursery rhyme.  Then we colored the page for our nursery rhyme folders.

Afterwards, we spent some time playing! The children have been enjoying using the magnifying glasses to explore pumpkins and gourds in the sensory table! Playdough has also been in high demand. We were also excited to discover that our dramatic play area was changed into a pizza parlor!

We also finished scooping out more pumpkin seeds from the giant pumpkins that Isaac S. donated to our classroom!

During playtime, some children worked on making shape pumpkins.

We had a special letter Pp snack today! First, we tasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins we explored yesterday. The seeds were baked with different seasonings, such as salty pumpkin seeds and even ones with cinnamon and sugar. We did a taste test to see which seasoning we liked best.  Most seemed to like the salty pumpkin seeds the best. We also ate popcorn for snack! What a delicious letter Pp snack!

After snack, we read the story Big Pumpkin. It is our new favorite story! In the story, the witch wanted to pull a pumpkin off the vine so she could make pumpkin pie. However, the pumpkin was too big. Other characters came along and offered to help. Soon there were many pulling on the pumpkin, but it still would not come off of the vine. Finally, a bat appears and has an idea. The others laugh, but they end up trying the bat's idea - and the pumpkin finally comes off of the vine. This is a great story that teaches the value of helping others and using teamwork! Click below to listen to it together at home!

Then we practiced sequencing the characters from the story in our own booklet version called "Who Took the Pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch."  Take some time to read the story with your child at home!

Remember that there is no 4K on Thursday due to the early release so we will have book check-out tomorrow.

Now that the colder weather has started to arrive, please be sure to send your child to school with warm clothing for outdoor play. It would be of great help to work with your child on learning how to dress him/herself independently to go outside to play! Thank you!

Have a fantastic evening! :)