Skip to main content

Pumpkin Power

Today was the big day. We were finally going to pick our pumpkins albeit they were still a little green (ok, a LOT green). So green that for a while I wondered if they were in fact not pumpkins but squash. But, lo and behold, they are pumpkins, just not super mature due to our less than perfectly sunny spot. I thought "Great, I can use this opportunity to teach them about the power of sun in ripening fruits and vegetables". Will they be upset that they are not green, I wondered. Well, when we gathered around to pick the pumpkins off the vine,  not one, not one single child said anything negative about their colour. I love these kids! They just went with it and were so excited to be picking them they really did not judge the colour at all. Truly, there is a deep lesson in this story. For all of us.

I also was entirely impressed by their uncanny ability to ignore the rain. The huge drops of rain that landed on us as we ran on the pathways, looked for coyotes  (not today), looked at leaf mulching on the Sharing Farms garden beds and played games on the many benches at Terra Nova. If it sounds like we had a lot of fun, we did!



While we were in the garden, Sidney looked up and said " It's a robin". Actually, it was an owl. Wow! What a gift! We watched the owl for quite a few minutes. I was happy to see the children did not get too impatient since it wasn't really doing anything. We talked about it's colours, camouflage and being nocturnal.

Off to the picnic table to cut the pumpkins open and get down to business. We scooped, sorted seeds from pumpkin flesh, whined about sticky hands and talked about cooking the seeds for our upcoming dinner.


Luckily we had delicious (and big!) cookies for Loreli's birthday and some chopped egg pitas from Nicolas's mom (yum!) so we were ok for a while but then... "I am getting hungry" started so we headed back to school for lunch.

More...pumpkin fun, playing, reading stories and then a circle about... you guessed it, the life cycle of a pumpkin!


What will the children most remember about today? Ask them tomorrow at breakfast and share your child's comments with us. Is it the owl? The pumpkins? The rain? Let me know.

Emily

Comments

Anonymous said…
Love the blog emily! we read it as a family and it helps to "fill in the blanks" It's also been a great way to keep our family up to date on what Loreli gets up to in shcool. She loved carving the pumpkins and making one a turtle. She had also metioned the hens and roosters have another egg. this lead to an interesting conversations of which one actually laid the egg!
30 October 2012 at 08:19
WRCC said…
I am so glad to hear you are enjoying it! Thanks for the feedback. It is so lovely to hear the conversations are continued at home.
2 November 2012 at 07:34
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Responsibility: Down to the Core

Social responsibility- a term that has now become quite common in the field of education and has the potential to lose its meaning if we are not careful. As an early childhood educator, I have always placed great importance on the need to develop this way of thinking in young children. It is for this reason that we engage in activities that benefit others, such as volunteering at our local food bank, adopting an owl, or raising money for Variety Club. With the recent catastrophe in the Philippines, my mind was suddenly thrown into its own typhoon. I found myself asking questions around social responsibility and what it really means. What does it mean to me? What does it mean to my preschoolers? How far does it extend into the world around us? Can four year old children grasp these deep and complex concepts? What can they understand about their world? How can we teach them about being socially responsible to: ones self; ones family; ones community; ones province; ones country; ones worl...
6 comments
Read more
On Monday, we became adopted parents of a dwarf frog. It was given to us by an alumni parent whose daughter no longer wanted it and I suppose she thought I was a vulnerable victim (clearly she was right!) and I said "Yes, we would love it,". Well, there is truth in that because the children already love this little creature. The Junior OSC children made Do Not Touch signs posted near the mini aquarium and our preschoolers made the frog pictures today and wanted to shower him/her with gifts. On Monday I asked them to go home and think about a name for the frog and bring their suggestion back to class on Wednesday. So, this morning we compiled our potential name list, with the understanding that we would be voting on the name. The name suggestions were as follows: Cynna: Badgie Colin: Jack Brooke: Flower Kayla: Froggie Luca: Penguin ( NOT Penguino) Alexa: Flower Bryn: Froggie Cole: Froggie Emily: Ella Zev: Spot Chloe: Eric Cash: Benji Wayne: Jackie The big vote ...
2 comments
Read more