Pumpkins and Brushes

Hi friends,

To feed into the fall-spirit of my class, I decided to bring some of the beautiful San Diego nature into our art projects and into our classroom.

Using craft sticks, I stapled four silk leaved to be used as brushes when we explore the different colors of the fall.
Will keep you updated with the response of my kiddos.

As part of this week's homework, the students took a pumpkin home and were encouraged to work with their family members decorating the pumpkin. These are just some of the amazing collection of one-of-a-kind art pieces decorating our classroom.
We spent the last 15 minutes today "showing off" our pumpkins with the class! They talked about what they did, how and who helped them. Both parents and students .....and of course, the teacher were very excited about this assignment

Stay tuned for updates!

Keep learning,

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Sensory Exploration Saturday

Hi friends,

This post will be short and sweet, just like my week! In honor to this fun holiday, I have come up with a very exciting sensory table idea which my kiddos loved!

This specific sensory table idea targets the needs of most of my kiddos. To start with, we have color matching - using the same colored -materials, tweezers and tub. Fine motor skills were also practiced with the use of the tweezers. The children were encouraged to use the tweezers to get the pumpkin seeds and put them inside the small plastic pumpkins (which I previously posted, along with the instructions to dye the seeds).
The yellow, green and red leaves were a combination of real and silk leaves - which we practiced classification and sensory exploration.

How's your fall-inspired activities going? Any big plans for Halloween? We are having a book character parade...that should be fun...stay tuned!

Keep learning!

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Five Fall-y Activities

Hello again,

Like I mentioned in a previous post, my kiddos are literally obsessed with anything pumpkin! They even ask if the cafeteria lady would make pumpkin pie for them....really?! That left me to come up with fall-inspired activities that would ease this obsession...I'm sure they will be obsessed about hats next week.....they are really random!

       

To begin with, in this activity, I am using the pumpkin seeds I dyed (see 10/11/13 post for directions). The mini pumpkins (purchased at the Dollar Tree store) are perfect to place the seeds. Each pumpkin has a number, which the students need to place the correct amount of seeds inside.

On a more Fall-y note, this activity also promotes one-to-one correspondence. The children should put the correct amount of leaves on the trees.

These pumpkin play-dough mats are great to promote imagination in creating their own "carving".

The Pumpkin poem. The pumpkin will have a smile and eyes cutout and will be placed as a smile or frown...according to the poem.

This is my fave! spooky spiders inside GAK. To maintain the circular form, I stored the GAK with the spider inside in individual circular plastic containers. They will be investigating and exploring using their magnifying glasses.

I just wonder what their next obsession would be?

Keep learning!

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Pumpkin Seeds

Hi friends,

We just came back from our district's fall break...two weeks of wonderfulness! Apparently, all of my kiddos visited pumpkin patches in our area and are totally into everything pumpkin.

I've been wanting to incorporate pumpkin seeds into our daily activities, especially math. After doing some research on easy ways to dye the seeds, my mom and I came up with a very easy and clean way to do it.

Preferable using already dried pumpkin seeds, place them in a plastic bag. Add several drops of food coloring. Close the bag and spread the color all over the seeds.

Once the seeds are covered with the desired color, place them on a napkin and in the microwave for 20 seconds. Let it cool for about a minute and save the seeds in a clean plastic bag. Once the seeds are dried it should not stain hands.

Ta-da! The final product!

Care to share how would you use pumpkin seeds in your classroom?

Keep learning!

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Monstober Monday...and a FREEBIE!

Hi friends,

Where did the summer go? We have welcomed fall, our fall break has ended, and furloughs are all over the nation...well, that's for another blog!

As soon you see everything made out of pumpkin is when you realize that October has arrived. Fall is my favorite season! Fall festivals everywhere, great weather, the leaves and its amazing colors and of course Halloween!

Today was our first day back after our two-week fall break. I went to visit my family in Puerto Rico...lots of beach, sand, and sun...had a blast! Well, vacation is over and we're back in school!

My kiddos also love Halloween, and I have prepared some goodies for them, to get into the fall/Halloween spirit!

I intend to use this 10 frame activity with my kiddos during math to assess one-to-one correspondence. Parent teacher conferences are around the corner!

Grab your freebie {HERE}.

Stay tuned for more Halloween inspired classroom activities!

Keep learning!

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