Pumpkin Plants

We have many pumpkin plants growing in our class now. It is a nice contrast to all the snow outside! The students are excited to see the changes everyday when they enter the classroom.

We have a few experiments on the go and are excited to see what will happen to those seeds. Students have learned that plants need:
1. Water
2. Soil
3. Air
4. Sunlight
To test this, we have planted seeds and withheld one of these needs to see what will happen! Students have made predictions and we will continue to watch.

Students observing the seeds

Exciting to notice the changes

It has been exciting to watch the life cycle in our classroom.

A sprout pops out of the soil

We can see the roots growing down

Lots of roots

Now we can see the start of the plant 

The leaves are starting to sprout

Many students have been choosing to write about their plants.

Pointing out the sprout

Excited to see the growth!

A.Ah. decided that he wanted to measure how big his sprout was, so he went and got cubes to measure his plant. He then wrote about it using a sentence and a labelled diagram.

Stay posted to see the continued growth!

Our Newest Inquiry: Kites!

"Kites fly so beautifully" 

- M.W.

We have noticed a trend in our classroom lately. Many, many students have been making kites and wanting to fly them. As educators, we knew we were probably on to something! We have been encouraging the students to make kites and ask questions.

A.A's "bird kite" 

Circle kites are quite popular

A triangle kite

Students were really excited to test out their kites. So, we put on our coats and headed outside!

The students have many wonders about kites.

N.M- I wonder how kites is flying round and round and that way, and that way, and that way!

A.K- I wonder why he has strings? (referring to a video we watched)

B.G- I wonder why they fly in the sky?

P.D- I wonder why the wind is pushing the kites?

A.C- I wonder why there is little strings on the kites?

M.F- I wonder why they have string?

R.H- I wonder how kites fly?

We are so excited to see where this inquiry takes us, hopefully this snow doesn't stop the momentum we have started!

More Pumpkin Investigations!

We have been continuing our investigations of pumpkins. We observed the outside and we observed the inside of the pumpkins and then described them.

We predicted the number of ribs on our pumpkins and then counted how many there were.

When we cut open our pumpkins we collected all the seeds. The students were amazed at how many there were. One student asked "I wonder how many seeds there are". We read a book called 'How Many Seeds In A Pumpkin?', which encouraged us to count our seeds by grouping them in 10s. 

We predicted the number before we began and then in partners students grouped their seeds.

The students were so surpised to see the final number of seeds for the pumpkins! The JK pumpkin had 270 and the SK pumpkin had 333!

Bella suggested we plant the seeds to grow our own pumpkin plants! So the students began planting and talking about what plants need to survive.

Observing the planted seeds

 We have had a variety of pumpkins, squash and gourds in the classroom. Many students wondered what was inside each. So we cut them open!

Our white pumpkin 

We were surprised to see orange inside the green one!

The yellow squash

Our students are getting so good at using describing words to explain their observations. They are using their senses to help them observe our experiments.

Pumpkin Math

We have used our students' interest in pumpkins as an opportunity to have some authentic math learning. 

Halloween inspired patterning

Numbered pumpkins

A provocation for measurement  

Measurement provocation for height

Recording sheet for observations

M.W- "the pumpkin is 18 cubes!"

Bella used groups of 4 to measure her pumpkin

 Writing her findings

D.S- "this pumpkin is big!"

"Look! This one is 6 cubes!"

H.W. using 2 cubes to measure the pumpkin

A.K using one-to-one correspondence to count how many cubes

R.H working on patterns

Using cubes to measure how much the gourd weighs

Working together

E.K. writing his observations about how much the apple weighs

A written representation of his math investigation

We will continue to investigate different ways of measuring and recording our findings!