Pumpkin Palooza {A Super Long Post About Our Week}

PUMPKINS, PuMpKiNs, pumpkins…everywhere.  This week we started learning about pumpkins in science for our unit on plants and animals.  In addition, we began reading literature on pumpkins.  Wednesday was our annual pumpkin investigations.  What a fun day!  This is the third year we have had an investigations day and it is always a blast.  For the investigations day we set up several stations that the students rotate to.  The stations consist of weighing, force/motion, sink/float, measurement (circumference and height), and counting.  In the morning, the students made predictions about each of the pumpkin rotations.  Later in the afternoon, we actually began our investigations.

Today was our second trip to The Peach Tree Farm and can you believe it…it rained again!!!!!!  This has never happened.  But…we made it!  It rained on the way there.  Once we got there, it continued for a short while…very light.  Then, it stopped for the majority of the trip.  It rained slightly towards the end of our hayride.  The Peach Tree Farm was so accommodating and we thank them very much for working with us.  They were so nice today to pop popcorn for all the students, parents, and teachers since we weren’t going to be eating lunch at their facilities.  So, before we left, we all enjoyed popcorn in the barn.  We didn’t go into the patches to pick the pumpkins today either.  We tried to save time…just incase it began to rain hard and we’d have to leave.  We wanted to ensure that everyone was able to grab a pumpkin to take home.  The kids did get to walk through the patches and look at the vines, flowers, and pumpkins.  It was cloudy and a little chilly, but overall it was a great day.  Thank you to everyone!  Thank you for allowing your child to go on the trip again!  Thank you to those parents and grandparents that attended the trip again!  We certainly couldn’t have done it without you.  Here are some pictures of our day…

When we returned from the pumpkin patch, we ate our lunches.  Afterwards, we prepared our room and ourselves for our fall party.  To say we had a busy day is an understatement.  The party was a huge success.  Thank you to all of the parents that donated treats for our party.  Also a special thank you to the parents that came and helped out at the party and brought a game for the students to play.  They loved it and had so much fun. 

After the party game, we snacked on our treats and watched the movie Spookley the Square Pumpkin.  The kids enjoyed it.  I’m so glad this day was such a a success, but as I mentioned earlier, it couldn’t have happened without all of you.  So…THANK YOU!

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

11/10 – NO SCHOOl…PD day

11/11 – Family Literacy Night 5-7pm

11/11-11/14 – Book Fair Week (we will visit the book fair as a class)

11/14 – PTO Movie Night (doors open at 6:30)

11/18 – PTO Member Meeting 6:30 pm (cafeteria)

11/25 – First Grade Thanksgiving Feast and Midterms go home today

11/26- 11/28 – NO SCHOOL…Thanksgiving Break

*Be on the lookout for more information pertaining to our annual first grade thanksgiving feast.  This is a fantastic event that we do every year in first grade.  Just a heads up, we will need your help once again in making this happen.  We will ask for parent volunteers to help server our thanksgiving meal and clean up.  We would love to have your help.  We’ll be sending home information soon about this event.  In advance, we thank you for everything you do to help make your child’s first grade year a memorable one.