Category: Learning

The children have been working on letter identification (e.g., upper and lower-case, in different fonts), letter formation, letter-sound matches and generating words that begin with a given letter.  Here we are doing some activities for the letter ‘Aa’.

The ability to use the senses to make exploratory observations is a curricular competency of the science curriculum for kindergarten.  The little scientists of Division 12  practiced this competency by using their five senses to describe the properties of our class pumpkin.

We described what our pumpkin looked like: orange, round, small, short, skin, stem, ribs.  We shook the pumpkin and heard it rattle.  We took off the lid and looked inside: pulp, seeds, stringy goo.  We smelled the pumpkin:  phew!  We touched the pulp and separated the seeds.   Finally, we cooked the seeds and tasted them: delicious!

We were surprised by the number of seeds that were in our small pumpkin.  We found out that if a pumpkin is dark orange and has a lot of ribs, it has been growing longer and will have more seeds.

We also learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin (seed, seedling, plant, vine, flower, green pumpkin, orange pumpkin), and what pumpkins need in order to grow (soil, sun, water, oxygen).

Ask me to tell you what I know about pumpkins.

We had a magical day visiting the Aldor Acres Pumpkin Patch!

The weather was perfect – sunny and warm – a beautiful autumn day.

The purpose of the trip was to enhance our studies within the science curriculum. This experience helped the children to make exploratory observations about plant and animal life cycles, and experience first-hand the structural features or behaviours that allow plants and animals to survive in the local environment.

The children were delighted with the animals – horses, goats, lambs, donkeys, baby pigs, baby chicks to name just a few.  They loved touching them, hearing their noises and experiencing all the different smells.    The children were particularly enamored with holding the baby bunnies and petting a three week old puppy.

After visiting the animals and playing on the hay bales, we took a ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Then we got to pick out our own pumpkin to take home, but which one should we choose? Finally, we picked the perfect one and it was back to the bus.

We had a wonderful trip!  Thank you to all the parent volunteers that came with us. We could not have had this experience without your support.