Growing Vines and Having Good Times: A Freebie

My teaching buddy loves growing pumpkin vines and did this right after Halloween when pumpkins were easy to find. She scooped out all the gooey stuff while the kids watched and helped and left all the pumpkin seeds in the bottom. Then she added soil. After a few days of sunshine and water this pumpkin sprouted and the children exploded with enthusiasm. This is so easy and your students will love this simple science. I swear it grows bigger each day and the children look forward to coming to school to watch their pumpkin grow! I hope you try this with your class. It is the perfect activity to use with the sequencing cards I provide as a freebie in the previous post. Grab them if you haven't had a chance.
We always continue to talk about pumpkins through the month of November since young children love measuring them, predicting if they will sink or float, etc. Don't forget to do a guided drawing of the life cycle if your students are ready for this. If not, just teach them how to draw a pumpkin. 

Kindergarten students are learning many sight words that are needed for them to build fluency with their guided readers but many continue to need additional practice learning those crucial works. This is one of my favorite games and it takes no time to put it together. I hide a slice of pumpkin pie behind a word and the game is over when the winner can read the word, removes the card and finds this card! I have a little chant that the children do before a child picks a card! Most children figure out that I place the special card behind a more challenging word and it motivates them to learn these quickly. I have been playing this game for years and it is a classroom favorite. If you want to have a copy you can find it here. If you take a copy please leave a comment telling me a favorite fall game you like to play with your class. We all love getting new ideas!

Pumpkins Are Not Predictable in Kindergarten

We finally got to our pumpkin activities. I loved Abby's method of collecting data with dot markers. This teacher is so amazing so check out her blog The Inspired Apple for fantastic ideas and visit if you just need a little chuckle. How about blue water? It was much more dramatic for the kids! Even the kids that predicted the pumpkin would float were so shocked when it happened. It was precious to see their expressions.

I saw this idea on Growing in Pre-K and was in awe of it. A sprout will actually grow inside of this slightly hollowed out pumpkin that still has lots of seeds inside. I am not well know for my green thumb but give me credit for trying. If it happens you will be able to hear me screaming at your school. Isn't this so cool? If you do
not know this site it is a wonderful resource for kindergarten teachers so take a peek. Have you ever asked a five year old to say circumference? Make sure you clap the syllables!

Pumpkin Seeds: Count Them and Eat Them

My grade level BFF's are already doing Pumpkin investigations and needed this book to finish out their activities. This is just like the book I have in the Applelicious Packet for sale at TpT. The kids had so much fun doing it and it was easy enough that many could do this pumpkin one independently... maybe. This week we are going to estimate the seeds in a small pumpkin by counting them in groups of ten. I also bought pumpkin seeds for them to taste too. We have been reading some great stories, focusing on the life cycle of a pumpkin. What activities are you doing? Grab it here and I hope you use it in your classroom.