A Pumpkin's Journey in Preschool

First we respect them, then, we beat them, next, we humiliate them, last we set them to rest.  Follow this blog and it will be sure to make you smile.

If you've been following our blogs, you will remember our trip last week to Uesugi Farms.  The kids picked their very own pumpkins after a full day of fun, but the new fun begins. 

We spent this past week putting our pumpkins to the test.  The kids spent their first day using one of the pumpkins as a model during group art.  They observed the bright colors, the texture, the shape, the stem and talked about how a pumpkin came to be. This is just the beginning.....

The hammers, golf-Ts and eager children started day two with the pounding of our pumpkins.  This was an opportunity to learn about hand-eye coordination, dexterity, their strength, balance, and team work.  We call this the "beating" of our pumpkins and boy was it a hit. No pun intended!  This table was left for 2 days so everyone had multiple chances to hammer away.  Those pumpkins took a beating.....

Take a look at our preschoolers as they beat, pound and explore our pumpkins.....

Bam, bam, bam, clank, clank, clank, the noise didn't end for a couple of days.... I loved it!

Now to humiliate our pumpkins.  Truly, we made our pumpkins dress up like a Mr. Potato Head. 

Next, we set our pumpkins to rest.  We did this by chopping them up, removing the seeds, cooking the seeds, then using the remaining pumpkin for science. 

See the children here explore the science and nature of a pumpkin. 

So what do you get when you place a pumpkin into a container over the weekend?  Lots of fuzzy mold. Now to document what we see.

  This was a full learning cycle on what happens to a pumpkin when put into the hands of our babes. 

   Take every opportunity to learn and explore.