Pumpkin Patch Fun!! (lots of pictures!!)

On Tuesday, October 19th, we had our field trip to the pumpkin patch!!  Wow, what a fun day!  The kids all did really great, and had a lot of fun!  I wish we could have stayed a little longer, but we still enjoyed the time!  One of the highlights - was riding the SCHOOL BUS!!!!  We sang the entire way to the pumpkin patch, our favorite songs - and even some new ones our class "wrote".  One favorite was "We're on our way to the pumpkin patch, the pumpkin patch, the pumpkin patch, we're on our way to the pumpkin patch, so early in the morning!" 

Once we were finally at our destination - THE PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!!  - we hopped on a hayride for a tour of the farm!  We learned about the turkeys that they raise, the wildlife the owners have seen on their property, how to grow WORLD RECORD giant pumpkins and about different breeds of cows!  It was a foggy day, but not too cold and not rainy.  After our hayride, we were dropped off by an awesome pumpkin catapult!  The kids learned how the catapult works and got to see a pumpkin fly through the air and land SPLAT, right in front of them!!  Then we learned how to properly pick corn...step 1 - introduce yourself and reach out your hand, step 2 - shake "hands with the corn" and twist and pull down, step 3 - tell the corn "thank you".  We also learned the difference between gourds and pumpkins - and then, finally...we got to pick out our pumpkins, a gourd and an ear of corn!!!  So fun!!

Enjoy the pictures of our 2010 Pumpkin Patch trip to Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm and Pumpkin Patch

How Do You Make a Pumpkin Pie?

How Do You Make a Pumpkin Pie?

by Mrs. Willis' Kindergarten/1st grade class

• You can use some pumpkin stuff. -Ella K.
• With some pumpkin, some salt and some stuff to mix it.  You need a baking pan and muffin pans.  And I think you need some chocolate syrup.  -Colin
• Pumpkins. -Zion
• I think with seeds.  That's it.  -Mailin
• You can use a little pan with a couple of triangles on a circle.  -Owen
• Add a pumpkin pie.  -Aydin
• We put salt and sugar and a little bit of pumpkin seeds.  We put a pie crust on it and bake it in the oven. -Ethan
• Add dough and pumpkin and salt.  But not too much salt!  -Alyssa
• Usually my mom doesn't make it.  But, you put pumpkin in it and salt and water.  The pumpkin at the bottom and the dough at the top.  -Kellen
• You put some dough in it and water on it.  -Ella T.
• First smash up some pumpkins.  Don't get the seeds just the stuff the seeds are on.  Then the topping for the pie and put it in the sun for 24 hours.  Then you put pumpkin sauce on it and then eat it!  -Camden
• Add 299 pumpkins. -Juddah
• You just put it in the oven until it dries up.  You put pumpkin salt and white salt in it.  The pumpkin salt is orange.  -Wesley
• You get some pumpkin and you cook it in the sun.  You take it out when it's crunchy and you eat it.  When you're done you rinse the dish and put it away.  -Avery
• With water. - Peyton

Fall Fun!!

After we finished up our September unit, we headed on into October!  We've been enjoying our "Fall Fun" unit so far this month, and look forward to learning even more about the Fall!  I divided this month into "mini-units" for each week, since there are SO many fun things to learn about in the Fall!  We started out just learning about the season of fall, and what happens during those months.  Last week we had a mini apple unit.  Some of the highlights of our "apple week" included:

• Apple Tasting - We got to try 4 different varieties of apples: granny smith, golden delicious, red delicious and gala.  We also tried apple chips, apple sauce and apple cider.  It was fun to compare the different tastes and textures of the apples!  They all taste SO different!!  
• Making applesauce - We made applesauce in the crockpot one day!  It smelled SO delicious cooking in our classroom all day long!  (The other classes were jealous!!)  We tried it in the afternoon.  Applesauce is REALLY easy to make in the crockpot if you're interested in trying.  We used 12 gala apples sliced and cut up, about 1/2 cup brown sugar and about 1 Tablespoon cinnamon!  We cooked it on high for about 4 hours and then mashed up the apples!  YUM!!!

I asked the class to complete the sentence "An Apple Is"...these were their responses:

• A fruit - Juddah
• Very red. - Camden
• Sweet - Ella T.
• A tree. -Wesley
• growing - Peyton
• Green - Ella K.
• Sweet - Alyssa
• Red, Green and Yellow. -Colin
• Very juicy. - Zion
• Yellow. - Owen
• Crunchy -Mailin
• Something to eat. - Aydin
• Juicy. -Ethan
• Really healthy for you.  -Ethan

After our apple week - we headed into Pumpkin Week!  We've been having fun learning about pumpkins this week!  We have been learning about how pumpkins grow, their life cycle and talking about fun things you can do with pumpkins! We made pumpkin pie playdough - which smelled really great, but didn't taste so great!!  The recipe is at the bottom of this post!  The week included a trip to the pumpkin patch!!  (Which will be another, picture heavy, post!)  I again asked the class to complete the sentence "A Pumpkin..." and these were their responses:

• is very big. - Camden
• has big seeds. - Zion
• is juicy. - Aydin
• is orange. - Avery 
• is a fruit. -Ethan
• is big. -Colin
• is round. - Alyssa
• has seeds. - Mailin
• is very orange. -Ella T.
• is round. -Peyton
• is for making pumpkin pie. -Owen
• is dirty. - Ella K.
• is something you have in your garden. - Kellen
• grows in the dirt. - Wesley
• is a pumpkin! -Juddah

Thanks for visiting our class blog!!!


Pumpkin Pie Playdough


Need: 5 1\2 Cups Flour, 2 Cups Salt, 8 teaspoons Cream of Tartar , 3\4 Cup Oil
1 Container (1 1\2 ounces) Pumpkin Pie Spice, Orange Food Coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red) , 4 Cups Water
Mix all of the ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps appear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.

Once upon a September....

I'm a little late on getting started with this blog this school year.  So, I'll have a couple of entries that are to "catch up" on things that we've already done this school year!  Our year is off to a great start!  We have a really fun group of kids in our class this year, and we've been enjoying getting to know each other over the first couple months of school!  Our first month's social studies unit was "All About Me and My Family" - we had fun learning about what our names mean, family traditions and some of our favorites!  We made flubber, learned about air pockets in water, and enjoyed the beautiful early fall sunshine!  This month was spent learning procedures, routines and just how to get along in class!!  Here are a few pictures from September:

Welcome to our blog!!

Welcome to our class blog!  This is where Mrs. Willis (that's me!), can post about what's happening in our classroom!  Stay tuned for pictures and fun stories!  I will try to post a few times each month (hopefully more!) about the things we are learning, projects we've been working on and that sort of thing!   I will e-mail parents when the blog has been updated too! :) 

Thanks for being a part of the WCA family!!!