My Little Pumpkin You’re Gourd-geous!: Investigating Pumpkins and Gourds at the Science Center

Here's for your close-up gourd-geous!: Pumpkin and Gourd Science Center Ideas 

What's Inside Pumpkin Craft/Diagram 

Take a Peek Inside!

Parts of A Pumpkin Chart 

Plump and Juicy Non-Fiction Picks: Pick a Perfect Pumpkin: Learning about Pumpkin Harvests by Robin Koontz 

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson

Put a Lid on It: Create a Viewing Station With a Plastic Take-out Container.

What child wouldn’t be amazed over the alien-like and colorful appearance of gourds and miniature varieties of perfectly perky and plump pumpkins? You’ll find out if you let your little horticulturist discover autumn’s most whimsical produce at your science center.

Make sure to tell the children that some gourds can be eaten, such as squash, and others are just purely for looking cute as buttons in an autumn display when announcing the center to the class. The mini pumpkin varieties can not be eaten.

Here are some fun facts I found as I searched the Internet. Most of the information was gotten from the specialty foods  magazine website, The Nibble. Check out the site at http://www.thenibble.com/.

• Many years ago people used gourds as instruments and dish-ware.
• People in South America drink a special drink from their gourds called Yerba Mate.
• Residents of the Caribbean and other parts of the world still use gourds for instruments such as drums.

Other uses for gourds include decorative arts such as painting and carving.

Make sure to place plastic tweezers, a scale and magnifying glasses on the table to entice the children to examine the gourds/pumpkins texture, shape, size and weight.

Simple ways to give children a better understanding of gourds and pumpkins are by:

• Making a Parts of a Pumpkin Chart using blue construction paper, a green pipe cleaner that has been twisted around a pencil to create the pumpkin’s tendrils, a leaf shape and flower which can be hand-drawn or traced from a coloring page, and a simple stem shape. Make sure to label all the parts with a black marker after you have glued them onto the page.
• Buy bagged varieties of gourds from your grocery store. If you would like to be able to use the gourds and pumpkins year after year consider buying some faux ones. These can be found at craft stores. 
• Create a What’s Inside a Pumpkin Craft  by using the instructions found at the allkidsnetwork.com site: http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/fall/inside-pumpkin-craft.asp. I used a pumpkin template I had found from one of my Mailbox Magazine Yearbooks. I cut out 2 pumpkin shapes. Dyed yellow yarn orange using craft paint and let the yarn dry. As I was waiting for the yarn to dry, I cut out and glued small white card-stock seed shapes onto one half of the pumpkin. After the dyed yarn was dry, I randomly glued the yarn around the seeds to mimic the stringy material found inside pumpkins. I then laminated this half from the destructiveness of chubby little fingers. Finally, I punched holes with a hole punch and used decorative brads to hold the two pumpkin halves together. Using pinking shears, I created the label What’s Inside? on the outside of the pumpkin.
• I created the pumpkin sequencing activity using a Mailbox Magazine Yearbook worksheet. I cut out and colored the sequencing cards and then placed them in sequential order (1, 2, 3, ).
• For a viewing station, I used an old take out container.

So go ahead and get gourd-geous with these gourd and pumpkin center ideas!

It's Circletime: Circletime Set-up Pictures

Turn your circletime into a fun, educational and exciting learning experience. Bright colors and creative design will capture and entice your pre-k pumpkins and turn them into pre-k superstars! Check out my circletime below:

My Circletime 

Conscious Discipline Tree 

Weather Charts and Puzzle Piece Shapes

Paint Can Colors 

Caterpillar 1-10 Number Chart and Spanish Fish Number Chart Border 

Let's Lunch: A Beautiful Candlelit Teacher's Appreciation Day Luncheon

On this ravishing spring day in the middle of May, I celebrated my first Teacher's Appreciation Day luncheon with my fellow daycare colleagues.

I was set to enjoy the everyday sandwich and soup affair of a traditional teacher's thank you lunch, but to my udder surprise was met with a scrumptious spread of lemon chicken, grilled vegetables, delectable dinner rolls, sparkling lemonade and light, buttery and creamy cookies for dessert.

After we settled down to dine at our tea candle-lit table, we sipped our bubbly lemonade from crystal cut glassware, sliced our food with silver-plated silverware and ate off of delicate and sophisticated dishware of a quiet elegance.

As if the day could be any more perfect, we were met with heartfelt and moving gifts from members of our PEG group: a lovingly hand-stiched apron monogrammed with our initials and a sprialbound school cookbook which compiled recipes from our students and their families!

My Initial Apron 

Start Spreading the News: Tips on Writing Top-Notch Newsletters

I love writing newsletters. I find it relaxing and a wonderful way to communicate with my parents and share my knowledge of early childhood education in an informal written account of my very busy and educational unit.

Just remember you don't need to be a wordsmith in order to provide your parents with insight into their child's weekly activities and centers.

The tips below should be a sufficient and impromptu guide into sparking up any newsletter.

• Use clear concise type such as Arial, Times New Roman, Times or Helvetica. These crisp clear fonts give any newsletter a professional look without frilly swirls or hard to read text. 
• Pepper your newsletter with educationally-based language and verbs such as fine motor, counted, observed, constructive play etc. 
• Make your newsletter personal by thanking parents who read to the children or children's birthdays. Believe me, this step goes a long way in making connections with parents. 
• Ask your director if you can add pictures to your newsletter. Remember a picture is worth more than a thousand words (especially to a parent who is busy working and not able to partake in the many fun activities their child enjoyed during their week). 
• Separate your activities and centers into a bullet point type format for ease of reading. 
• Title your e-mail newsletters with your homeroom name and unit so that parents will not accidentally delete it as spam. 

Are You a Literature-Based Teacher?: Visit My Other Blog Pump Up the Volumes To View Preschool/Adult Literature

I was taught to use literature as a springboard to lesson planning. Whether it be taking a picture walk to introduce a lesson, sequencing events in a story using story cards, or retelling a story using a gross-motor activity or puppets books reign supreme.

They concretely examine new vocabulary, phonological awareness, and visual discrimination. Books can be used to develop any kind of lesson plan on any subject: ex. social studies (read Little Miss Liberty by Chris Robertson to your students and make Lady Liberty Crowns, speak about early immigration to Castle Clinton (once known as Castle Garden and the precursor of Ellis Island. For more information visit: http://www.nps.gov/cacl/index.htm) or Ellis Island, dance to scarves to Neil Diamond's "America" while speaking about ship travel to America,  or have students bring in pictures of their family and develop a class family tree).

The possibilities are truly endless. As the Reading Rainbow theme song said:  take a look, its in a book...

With Literature-based lesson planning your lessons are truly unlocked through taking a look in a book.

I invite you to investigate the possibilities of literature-based lesson planning by viewing my Pump Up the Volumes blog which is dedicated to children's, young adult, and adult books and periodicals.

Pump Up The Volumes Blog

http://pumpupthevolumes.blogspot.com/