What's Inside of a Pumpkin?

Today we wrapped up our pumpkin unit by cutting a pumpkin open and taking a look at what's inside!  We found lots of "goop", seeds, and made the observation that it's hollow.  We got to explore the pumpkin by using our five senses...saving "taste" for tomorrow- Mrs. Ciupak and Mrs. Cole are going to roast the seeds for us to try. :)

Literary Pumpkins

When you walk through the front lobby of Chets Creek the last week of October each year, you will see a plethora of Literary Pumpkins.  Literary Pumpkins are pumpkins that are transformed into story book characters. This year, our class decided to create Marley, from John Grogan's Marley Goes to School.  We love reading John Grogan's children's series about Marley's adventures.  We would like to thank Mrs. Fetzer and Mrs. Panossian for helping our class create Marley and for all of their time and dedication in making this first time experience for our kindergarteners memorable!  Below are pictures of our finished product. :)

 

Our First Field Trip: Diamond D Ranch

On Tuesday, October 19th, we took our first field trip to Diamond D Ranch.  We rode ponies, went on a nature walk, fed goats and catfish, and went on a tractor ride into a cow pasture.  The cows came right up to us so we could feed and pet them!  Click here to view photos of our fun-filled day!

Our Little "Pumpkins" are Growing into "Spook-tacular" Scientists!

We are finally back up and running after a few technical difficulties!  Thank you for your patience!

We have put on our lab coats and "carved" our way into our Science Pumpkin Unit!  Yesterday we observed a pumpkin and drew and labeled what we saw.  Today we created a KWL Chart (What we know about pumpkins, what we want to know, and what we learned).  We contributed many facts on pumpkins already, using our prior knowledge, and generated some great questions!  Once we have finished this unit, we will be able to fill in the "Learned" portion on the chart. 

We conducted an experiment today asking the question, "Does a pumpkin sink or float?".  The students made a prediction whether the pumpkin would sink or float when dropped in a container of water.  They arrived at the conclusion that a pumpkin will sink.

As you may know, pumpkins are supposed to float due to their hollow middle.  So what happened with our pumpkin?  We took a closer look and attempted the experiment again with a smaller pumpkin (ours was medium sized), which did float (they are supposed to regardless of size due to it being hollow).  So why did ours sink?  According to our research, if there are any holes in a pumpkin (we have used them in other activities prior to this experiment, so it is possible), water is able to get into the hollow cavity, which would flood it causing it to sink.  Pumpkins are less dense than the water.   An object floats if its mass is less than the mass of the water it displaces when it is placed on the surface.  

 

A Day in the Life of a Kindergartener: Open House 2010

If you were not able to make it to Open House on October 4th, or would like to see "A Day in the Life of a Kindergartener" again, here is the slide show we shared. Enjoy! :)