Pumpkin Inspiration and Activities

It's fall and I see pumpkins everywhere. Well, not so much in my neighborhood but all over the blogs. Pumpkins make great teaching tools. Here are a few ideas I've seen recently that look fun and will encourage exploration.

How Does Your Pumpkin Measure Up? (Pre-K Pages)
Measure pumpkins in several different ways. This is a great math/science exploration and could lead to even more exploration with pumpkins.


Pumpkin Water Play (Educators' Spin On It)
My kids love using water. Adding pumpkins and other fall-related items could add some fun seasonal play.


Shake It Up! Pumpkin Painting (Sunny Day Family)
We love to paint - with anything and on just about anything. Painting on pumpkins is a fun activity but this one is no mess. I don't mind mess but I like the way these turned out!


Pumpkin Car Tunnel (Little Bins for Little Hands)
Okay, this is just cool. I love it! If we get a pumpkin in our room, I want to do this. Driving a car through a pumpkin just seems like something my kids would enjoy.


Pumpkin Seed Play Dough (Teach Preschool)
I like using the seeds with play dough. Just seems like all kinds of possibilities for exploration and creating.


Still Life Painting (Brick by Brick)
We're experimented with still life painting and drawing with pumpkins. It's interesting to introduce new ideas for painting with kids.

5 Ways to Use Rocks

Rocks make great resources in the classroom. Now when I say rocks, I mean all kinds of rocks and gems. We regularly use medium river rocks, small river rocks (like gravel), and floral gems/marbles. Whatever you use, you can use them in different ways. Here are five ways we've used them.

1. Count them.

Put rocks with other items and counting mats. My kids love to stack different items on the counting mats, including rocks.

Or count them as you play a counting board game.

2. Build with them.

I think that you can use just about anything in the blocks center. We add rocks (and sometimes other nature items) at times. My kids like to incorporate rocks in their buildings.

Or you can build with them with no blocks, too. Here we're building rivers.

3. Spell with them.

Print letters on paper or make letters with tape on the floor. Use rocks to outline the letters. You could even challenge kids to look at the letters and make them on a table or floor beside the printed letter instead of on top of it.

4. Investigate them.

Use rocks in your nature/science center. Include a scale, magnifying glasses, rulers, paper, and pencils. Kids can investigate the rocks. They can look at them, draw or write about them, weigh them. Hands-on science is great!

5. Use them with play dough.

Add small rocks and gems to your play dough center or activity. Kids can choose how to use them. (They may ignore them, too.) Our kids enjoyed exploring and creating by mixing the rocks in with the play dough. We created pizzas and mountains and all kinds of interesting things.

We've used rocks in all kinds of ways. These are just five of our favorites. How do you use rocks and gems to explore and learn?

No Live Plants

I had another Rae Pica moment. I know it sounds like I'm using her name in vain, but I'm really not (or at least that's not my intent). After reading her book and seeing her #AskingWhatIf posts, I always think of her when I run into things that just seem incomprehensible or over-reactive in education settings. (Rae, if you want me to stop using your name, please tell me.)

A friend commented that her husband sent her fabric roses for Valentine's Day since the school does not allow any live plants or flowers. That washed over me for a minute. Then I had a mental double take. What? No live plants?

The reason? Allergies. I understand the need to keep kids safe and avoid things that could cause concern. But no live plants? I have so many questions.

How can kids explore and understand plants and how they live?
What about science exploration?
Do kids ever get to go outside, where live plants are everywhere?
Or is the "landscaping" around the school just concrete?
What happened to using the senses to investigate the world?
Can kids plant seeds and watch them grow?
Can they go to a pumpkin patch or orchard for a field trip?

I know, I know. Allergies. But surely there's another way to address these needs without totally banning the natural world.

Thanks, Rae, for making me be in tune with these things. And for keeping me asking "What if?"


**Note: I am not trying to be unkind to any school, leader, or administration. But I don't think many leaders nowadays are truly thinking through implications of the "easy way out."

Free Range Sand Play

Do you ever wonder what others think about you? Sometimes I do. And sometimes I worry that they think I'm crazy. Recently we did a "crazy" thing.

Usually when we have sand play, it looks like this.

A bin of sand with tools. Several kids play together with the sand in the same space.

But a few weeks ago, we did "free range sand play." Well, not exactly free range. But we did liberate the sand from its singular container. We put it on trays with tools available. (We did this once before.)

Kids played in more individual ways than cooperatively.

They did talk with one another. They did watch one another. They did experiment in some of the same ways, building on one another's ideas.

But I noticed that kids took different chances and explored their own ideas. They had space to experiment and try things, without having to worry about how their exploration impacted others.

The "mess" that resulted was not any more than it usually is in sand play. In fact, I think there was less sand on our drop cloth since several kids were not "wrestling" for space in the one container.

And, as I remember it, I had to do less guiding talk, reminding kids to keep sand over the container and helping referee play issues.

I think other teachers who saw this may have had a slight skip in their heartbeats. I wonder if they think I'm crazy to do this kind of stuff.

And maybe I am.

But a little crazy and a little danger can open up lots of learning possibilities.

(And I'm learning to care less about what others think, especially if it provides good learning experiences for kids.)

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - Windy Day Edition

Spring is finally coming here. I've been thinking about fun things to do in the spring weather. Here are some fun "windy day" things to do.

Kites

Use a paper plate to make a kite: Decorate with markers, stickers, or your favorite art materials. Punch a hole in one side. Attach ribbon or crepe paper streamers to the side opposite the hole. (Use a stapler.) Tie string through the hole; tie a craft stick to the other end for holding. Experiment in the wind to make the paper plate kite fly.

Check out this Jellyfish Kite (Sun Hats & Wellie Boots). 

Repurpose a plastic bag for a kite (I'm a teachers, get me outside here!).

More kite ideas (Kids Ministry 101)

Airplanes

Make an airplane from straws and paper strips.

Or fold lots of different paper ones using these ideas (10 Paper Airplanes).

Streamers

Staple or tape ribbons to dowel sticks to make streamers to hold in the wind. Or tie long ribbons to small plastic bracelets to play with in the wind.

Or use scarves to explore wind (B-Inspired Mama).

Make a homemade anemometer (Weather WizKids).

Flags, Pinwheels, Weather Vanes

Set up a small weather vane or stake a few flags or pinwheels in the ground. Watch them spin, turn, and flutter.

Make your own pinwheel - check out this how to (Red Ted Art).

Other Ideas

Blow bubbles and watch them float on the wind. Make your own bubbles (Science Kids).

Hang windchimes or mobiles and watch them move in the wind.

More wind ideas from I'm a Teacher, Get Me Outside Here!

Caterpillars to Butterflies

We have had lots of excitement this past nine weeks. Our science kit for this period is Life Cycle of Butterflies. (Our district provides kits, most from Carolina.)

I told them we would be getting caterpillars and one day this box arrived.

Anytime a box arrives, we always open it as a class. Well, that day they just knew it was the caterpillars. It was.

In the afternoon, the kids scooped "caterpillar food" into a small cup and I helped transfer a caterpillar into the cup, too. We covered it with some thin paper and a lid.

Every day the kids would come in and look at the caterpillars. They ate and ate and ate. Some even ate the paper at the top of the cup.

They grew bigger and bigger.

We came in one day and a few had changed. They were hanging from the paper (or lid) in chrysalises. The change had begun.

"When will they open? " We looked online for more information.

One afternoon, I carefully transferred the chrysalises to the butterfly house. (I thought I could accomplish this much easier than with the kids in the room.) When they arrived the next day, they could see the forming butterflies all taped along the walls. (I taped the paper, careful not to touch the chrysalis each time. For those who ate their paper and attached to the lids, I taped the lids to the top of the butterfly house.)

"Which one is mine?" they would ask. I didn't know for sure. We drew and wrote to document what we saw and what we thought was happening.

Each day kids would go check the butterfly house. So much excitement. Excitement that had to be contained so we could accomplish other things. But excitement that I didn't want to contain (at least too much).

These kids didn't see this type of thing much. They may have yards or parks but they don't see much nature in action.

One day we came in and a butterfly was sitting on the wall of his house. "He's just flapping his wings." We talked about the need to the butterfly to strengthen his wings.

That morning a couple more appeared. We just noticed them from time to time. Then, a crucial moment.

"One's coming out now!" a student near the butterfly house called. Everything stopped.

"Okay," I said. "Let's put away our books. Then let's watch." (I knew little else would be accomplished at that moment. Besides, I wanted them to see what was happening.")

After a few days, the butterflies were out. They would fly from time to time around the butterfly house. We made "butterfly food" (sugar water) and placed in on sponges in the house. We enjoyed observing our butterflies.

"Do butterflies live for nine months?" a boy asked. I didn't know exactly how long they lived. We looked online. TWO WEEKS! These butterflies had a life span of two weeks.

One day, we went to the school garden and released them. One girl tried to take one home, cupped and hidden in her hands. So much excitement. (Too much? I'm sure we disturbed classroom in the building.)

Throughout the experience, we drew pictures. We wrote words. We talked about life cycles. We read about butterflies and caterpillars. We made our own butterflies, too.

As I think back through the excitement and interest, I realize. Caterpillars weren't the only ones who transformed these weeks.

Time to Refocus

When I began this blog - gosh, 5 years ago - my intent was to think about and talk about how young kids learn and to share my ideas for teaching them. In recent years, this blog has been more about my personal journey instead of ideas about teaching. Thank you for following that journey. I really appreciate it.

Now, I face a transition. (That's for a later post.) And I think my blog needs one, too. I would like to refocus the blog back on teaching and ideas about teaching. My reflections will always be a part of my blog - after all that's who I am.

But the blog should be about teaching and kids and ideas - not me. In light of that refocus, here are some posts that inspired me this week.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere

How to Make Ice Cream in a Coffee Can (Twodaloo) - I've done this before and it's a lot of fun. I enjoyed reading this post and being reminded of this great idea!

PVC Pipes + Connectors + Water = Physics (rubberbooks and elf shoes) - I always enjoy using PVC pipes. My kids have asked for water before but I haven't been set up to include it. This post shows me that we need to do it! (One of my top posts on PVC pipes)

Play or Work (Elementary My Dear, or Far From It) - Jenny sums up in this post what I've been feeling all year. I think I've been living with "messages that go against everything I believe." I'm not sure where to go from here, but things are going to change. This post reminds me of that.

Environmental Print Bingo (Pre-K Pages) - I love using environmental print and this post is a fun game using environmental print. And you can get a free printable!

Selfie Puzzle (Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi) - Combining technology, a favorite trend (selfies), and craft sticks? A great combination. And building number sense by adding numerals.


Thanks for being a part of my online community. I have learned so much from each of you and hope to continue to share and learn with you.


P.S. Have you seen this book by Deborah Stewart? She's the hardest working preschool blogger and teacher and writer and queen-of-all-media. And a great online friend. This book helps parents know more about developing skills and supporting learning so kids will be ready for the start of kindergarten.

Connecting to Where They Are

I'm a firm believer in discovering kids' interests and connecting the teaching to those interests. I've been thinking about ways to connect writing, reading, and "mathing" to some of those interests. Well, connecting them in ways that build skills and understanding instead of just "fun" stuff. (Not that there's anything wrong with fun!)

For example, I have a few boys that are obsessed with Spiderman. One in particular draws lots of pictures of Spiderman in his journal...but won't write any words about those pictures. He struggles with his confidence in reading and in math. I've heard him sounding and reading. He can do it. He just thinks he can't - and he's not as proficient as some of the others in my class. I've been trying to think of ways to help him push beyond his current skill level.

Here are some of the things I bought to use next week.

I want to "think sideways" (as my friend Aunt Annie says) and move from just Spiderman to webs and spiders and so forth. (It helps that it's October and this stuff is readily available.) A trip to the local used bookstore garnered me many readers and nonfiction books about spiders, bugs, and other animals. (We're also beginning a focus on animals in science this week.) My wife (a wonderful support to me) went to Target and grabbed up some spiders (among other things for me). We will be writing and counting and adding and subtracting and using spiders a lot in the next couple of weeks.

I've also begun seeing lots of spider-related activities online. (Again, it's October!) Here are some of the things I'm thinking about using with my friends in class.

No Time for Flash Cards: Spider Web Walking - I "clipped" this idea last year. I'm working on how to use it in my classroom. Walking on the web and read sight words or walking on web to pick up spiders or put down spiders for adding/subtracting.

Kindergarten's 3 R's: Sight Word Spider - I definitely want to figure out a way to use this with my kids. Maybe I'll let them choose words to work on and glue on their spiders.

hands on: as we grow: Sticky Spider Web - Instead of tossing, I think we'll roll dice or draw numbers (from my Uno cards) and add/subtract spiders on the sticky web.

Freebie-Licious: Very Busy Spider Writing Prompt - Use this to think about beginning, middle, and end of the story. (Note: Freebie-Licious is one of my new favorite Web sites.)

Dr. Jean: Spider Rings! - Lots of fun ideas for using those spider rings.

Clutter-Free Classroom: Eeek! A Spider - Ideas for researching and writing about spiders.

Lessons from a Teacher: Incy Wincy Spider Hexagons - This idea was posted on my Facebook page when I mentioned that I was collecting spider ideas. (Isn't the online community great?!!) I love the paper plate webs a lot.

Inner Child Learning: Monster Math - I love the idea of using wiggle eyes as counters. Or even just drawing them on with dry erase markers. I'm going to make this game with spiders instead of monsters.

Building on kids' interests is important to engaging them in the learning process even more. I'll keep you posted on how we weave webs, journal about spiders, and compare what spiders do to what other animals do.

(And, for the record, I'm not a big fan of spiders. So we probably won't have real ones in the classroom. But, if the opportunity arises, I'll do whatever I need to do to help my kids learn.)

Making More Sand

This week the kids were playing with sand and animals. At one point, I came upon some kids packing and smoothing the sand up to one side.

Teacher Tom continues to challenge me to think about how I talk with kids. So I said, "It looks like you are packing the sand."

"We are trying to make more sand," they said.

This perplexed me.

"Okay," one said. "Now let's see if we have more sand."

They began to pull the sand down into the rest of the container.

They excitedly talked to each other as they worked.

"Did you make more sand?" I asked.

They kept working and talking together. I guess they didn't hear me...working so hard.

I'm still not exactly sure what they were doing. Did they think they could literally create more sand? Were they just playing and experimenting? Whatever the goal, the kids were focused on accomplishing their plan.

Having an idea - trying it out - working with others...I know when to let my question go unanswered.

Play: It's Not Just for Younger Kids

This week, as the class time was beginning, a couple of kids came into the room and started to play. A second-grade friend came by and walked to one of the tables. She saw the barley we had out to scoop and pour. Immediately she ran her hands through the barley.

She began to scoop the barley and pour it into cups. She parceled it out...put other cups on top of barley-filled containers...poured out the barley and began again. She kept at it for several minutes, until it was time for her to go to her own class.

As my kids began to fill the room, they found the barley and began to work, too. Sometimes one worked alone. Sometimes two or three would work together.

They would try different ways of pouring. They would fill scoops and cups. They would pour the cups into each other. They would sweep the table and pour the wayward pieces back into the container. (Usually at my suggestion.)

As I watched my younger kids play, I thought about my (slightly) older friend. She seemed as engaged and interested as the kids in my class.

Sure, she tried a few things they didn't. But the hands-on, experience seems to engage her as much as the kindergartners.

Play isn't just for little kids. It isn't just for kindergartners.

In light of the dreaming I've been doing, seeing her play really has me thinking.

Learning through experimenting and investigating. Learning through hands-on experiences. That type of learning is for all kids. And for us adults, too.

Kids of a Sort

Tonight I was helping in our grades 1-3 choir at church. We were listening to music and drawing something the music made us think about. (This is a fun activity for younger kids, too.)

I came upon this as I walked around.

A girl was carefully sorting her handful of crayons into groups of like colors. Sometimes she would make a mark on her paper to test the color and then put it in the correct place. (I think she even sorted within the same color, too.)

As I watched her work, I thought about my kindergartners. Some kids just have a need to categorize and sort.

No matter what they are doing, this need makes itself known. One boy I know always sorts what he's using as he plays.

Sometimes he creates careful representations of different groups.

Sometimes he just lines things up in a particular order.

If he finds only one of a thing, he groups it with whatever seems to be the nearest to the lone item. ("Purple is kind of like blue. White is kind of like yellow.)

I'm thankful for these kids. One day they will become the organizers and planners. One day they can make sure that apps get written or accounting books get done. Maybe they'll become bankers or mathematicians.

They may become scientists - using similarities and differences to categorize and classify. They may become inventors, seeing how things are like other things. (For example, Velcro is like burrs.)

I'm glad I can foster that kind of thinking. Even when I don't plan to do so. (But it's better if I make sure to have something that can be sorted...if the kids choose to do so.)

What do you give your kids to sort? What have you seen your kids sort?