Spiders, Bats, and Pumpkins, Day Thirteen

Today is a great day to make thank-you notes or special pictures for parents. There is a little less control for the students today, but this makes a really cute picture for keeping. You will be making pictures of “pumpkin patches.” Give each student a sheet of green (preferably light green so the orange paint will show up) paper and a dish of orange paint. Have the students dip their fists into the orange paint and press them onto the paper so that the lines of their fingers show up-they will look like pumpkins. You can use green raffia or string to make vines, and if you would like you can have the students go back and glue or draw on faces for Jack-o-lanterns.

For science, today review the words that your students listed describing the pumpkins that they passed around yesterday. Ask the students what they think the inside of the pumpkin will be like. Make a T-chart (line across the top, line down the middle) with one side showing predictions and one side showing what the pumpkin was actually like. List the words that the students give you to describe the inside of the pumpkin. You can lead them by asking them questions or give them pictures to choose from (cold/hot, wet/dry, etc.). Cut open a pumpkin and let the students touch the inside and describe it. Put the insides into your sensory table for students to touch. Tell them to pay special attention to the seeds-you will make roasted pumpkin seeds later in the week!