OUR PUMPKIN INVESTIGATION

October 28-30th , 2014

Our Pumpkin Investigation

One day we found a pumpkin in our classroom.  We decided to investigate. We lifted it up to see how heavy it was.  Some friends thought it was really, really heavy and some friends thought it was not that heavy at all.  We wonder how we could tell for sure.  Mrs. Johnston had a special measuring thing that had lots of numbers on it. It had a red pointer on it too.  E.L. remembered that he saw one of these before and that it was called a scale.  You can stand on it to tell how much you weigh. We all took a guess at how much we thought the pumpkin weighed. 

This is called estimation.   Here are our estimates. Our biggest estimate was 1 million pounds and our smallest estimate was 1 pound.



First we have to make sure the line or “pointer” is on the zero.  Then we placed the pumpkin on the scale. We looked closely at the line to see if it moved.  The number that it points too will tell us how much the pumpkin weighs.

 

Now we wondered what was inside the pumpkin that made it so heavy.  Some friends had looked inside a pumpkin before and they said that there were seeds and yucky stuff inside.  We wanted to look inside our pumpkin to see if there were seeds inside too.

 

Here Are Our Seed Count Estimates

EC: 1 Million          RG: 1,000

KM: 100                CH: 50

KP: 20                  AG:60

SC: 5                    AJ: 16

JM” 17                 BD: 1 Million

MB: 12                 GM: 15

AS: 21                  CC: 100

AV: 100                RT: 60

JV: 16                  MA: 100

CC: 155                CS: 1000

JA: 60                 SG: 1215

SA: 123               GD: 8

MT : 2

EL: 1 Million Thousand

 

We thought it would be easier to count the seeds if we separated the seeds and the yucky stuff.  Messy work is always more fun with friends!

      





 



Each group counted up their seeds.  Group 1 counted 49 seeds.  Group 2 counted 25 seeds.  Group counted 30 seeds.  Group 4 counted 85 seeds.  We wondered how many seeds we had altogether. So we recorded our seed counts on our class chart. We made sticks to show each pumpkin seed from each group.  Then we counted them all up.  It was a lot of counting but we got the job done together. 
Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Now we had to count all of the sticks so that we can know how many seeds we have altogether. TEAM WONDERWORLD is on the job!

 

Now we are all excited about Halloween.  Here are some of our other Haunted Halloween activities. We made a Haunted House. Soooooo Scary!  We made Halloween Spooky patterns too.

 

Halloween Touch And Feel: We used our sense of touch to guess what was inside the bag.  No Peeking! We tried to find words to describe what we were feeling.

 

Halloween I Spy Challenge

We dug for buried Halloween Treasures.  We explored writing by recording our treasure finds on our chart. Some friends used check marks, some friends used numbers and some used letters.

 

 

 

We made Halloween Designs.  We documented our learning by writing and drawing a picture

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

 

Just in case you may be wondering what we have been learning during our pumpkin investigation, here are some of the Ontario FDK Curriculum expectations that we unfolded.

As you can see, we have been very busy learning through exploration, observation, and our favourite, authentic real life experiences. Thank You for your support!

Social Development Big Idea: Children are connected to others and contribute to their world.

Social Development 1.2 Demonstrate the ability to take turns in activities and discussions (e.g., engage in play activities with others, listen to peers and adults).
Social Development 3.2 Demonstrate respect and consideration for individual differences and alternative points of view (e.g., help a friend who speaks another language, adapt behaviour to accommodate a classmate’s ideas).

Emotional Development Big Idea:  Children have a strong sense of identity and well-being.
Emotional Development 2.3 Demonstrate self-motivation, initiative, and confidence in their approach to learning by selecting and completing learning tasks (e.g., choose learning centres independently, try something new, persevere with tasks).

Language Big Idea: Children are effective communicators.
Langauge 1.2 Listen and respond to others for a variety of purposes (e.g., to exchange ideas, express feelings, offer opinions) and in a variety of contexts (e.g., after read-alouds and shared reading or writing activities; while solving a class math problem; in imaginary or exploratory play; at the learning centres; while engaged in games and outdoor play; while making scientific observations of creatures outdoors).
Language 1.5 Use language in various contexts to connect new experiences with what they already know (e.g., contribute ideas orally during shared or interactive writing; contribute to conversations at learning centres; respond to teacher prompts).
Language 4.1 Demonstrate an interest in writing (e.g., choose a variety of writing materials, such as adhesive notes, labels, envelopes, coloured paper, markers, crayons, pencils) and choose to write in a variety of contexts (e.g., draw or record ideas at learning centres).
Language 4.5 Experiment with a variety of simple writing forms for different purposes and in a variety of contexts.

Mathematics Big Idea: Young children have a conceptual understanding of mathematics and of mathematical thinking and reasoning.
Number Sense 1.4 Demonstrate understanding of the counting concepts of stable order (i.e., the concept that the counting
sequence is always the same – 1 is followed by 2, 2 by 3, and so on) and of order irrelevance (i.e., the concept that the number of objects in a set will be the same regardless of which object is used to begin the counting).
Number Sense 1.6 Begin to use information to estimate the number in a small set (e.g., apply knowledge of quantity,
use a common reference such as a five frame).
Number Sense 1.7 Demonstrate an understanding of number relationships for numbers from 0 to 10, through investigation (e.g., show small quantities using fingers or manipulatives).
Patterning 4.1 Identify, create, reproduce, and extend repeating patterns through investigation, using a variety of materials (e.g., attribute blocks, pattern blocks, a hundreds chart, toys, bottle tops, buttons, toothpicks) and actions (e.g., physical actions such as clapping, jumping, tapping).
Data Management 5.1 Sort, classify, and compare objects and describe the attributes used.

Science And Technology Big Idea: Children are curious and connect prior knowledge to new contexts in order to understand the world around them.
Science and Technology 1.1 Ask questions about and describe some natural occurrences, using their own observations and representations (e.g., drawings, writing).
Science and Technology 2.1 State problems and pose questions before and during investigations.
Science and Technology 2.2 Make predictions and observations before and during investigations.

Science and Technology 2.4 Communicate results and findings from individual and group investigations (e.g., explain

and/or show how they made their structure; state simple conclusions from an experiment; record ideas using pictures, numbers, labels).
Science and Technology 4.5 Communicate and record results and findings after constructing things either individually or in groups (e.g., explain and/or show how they made their structure; record ideas using pictures, words, numbers on labels or in charts). 

Visual Arts Big Idea: Young children have an innate openness to artistic activities.

Visual Arts 2.2 Explore different elements of design (e.g., colour, line, shape, texture, form) in visual arts.