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.