Pumpkin Happenings

Young pumpkin enthusiasts are deep into our study of pumpkins. Kindergarteners learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin during Science this week, through read-aloud and class discussions. We read Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Jack. Our young scientists learned about the life cycle and parts of a pumpkin. They know that the beautiful yellow flowers that grow from a pumpkin vine are the promise for a future pumpkin. Scientists also observed our “Pumpkin Jack” and recorded daily observations of the changes occurring. So far they have noticed that it is getting “fuzzy” or “furry” and there is a lot of pumpkin juice at the bottom of the container. Stay tuned as we continue to learn more about the decomposing process through our pumpkin unit!

Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin experts were thrilled to go on their first study trip to the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch on Wednesday. Kindergarteners spent the morning jumping in the sun on a gigantic trampoline, going down giant slides, and just having lots of fun! Your child then enjoyed going on a hayride through the plantation. They saw ghosts, spiders, pirates, witches, and so much more!! Kindergarteners learned all about the life cycle and acted it out in movement and song and then picked a pumpkin in a large field. Pumpkin experts then enjoyed eating lunch together among the pumpkins. It was a fantastic time!

Vivid Vocabulary

Kindergarten scholars have been learning sophisticated words each week during their vocabulary study. These rigorous words come from our Text Talk curriculum. In this curriculum, we focus on one book each week. The book is read aloud to the class on Monday and Tuesday with frequent pauses to scaffold comprehension. Students develop deep understanding through comprehension skills such as summarizing, identifying problem/solution, recognizing story structure, clarifying story ideas, making inferences, and building prior knowledge throughout each story. Wednesday and Thursday’s lessons each explicitly teach 3 new words with robust conversations about the words in child-friendly examples. Students extend their understanding by illustrating  examples of our vocabulary words. They have quite a collection of illustrations in their vocabulary journals!

Kindergarteners are so excited to be learning these robust words. They delight in hearing these words outside of our vocabulary instruction and enjoy applying them to different situations throughout our day.

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, October 17^th Parent Morning Meeting 8:00-8:30
• Monday, October 30^th Pumpkin Presentation and Feast @ 2:00
• Tuesday, October 31^st Halloween Carnival 11:30 Dismissal