Apples and Pumpkins and Fall, Oh My!

Hey guys! Once again...it's been awhile since I posted! So sorry! Kindergarten is crazy! I feel like time is going by super fast and very slow all at the same time. Does that make sense? It's just making me so tired. I've been going to bed at like 9 most nights so blogging hasn't been a priority. In an effort to get caught up, I'm going to post about both apples and pumpkins!

I love this time of year and there are always lots of fun things to teach about during the fall. The kids love learning about apples and pumpkins and it's a perfect time to learn all about the parts of a plant and its life cycle.

First we started with apples. In reading we did several review games that were apple related including a beginning sound sort and a letters/words sort:

 

In math we did a matching sets games where the kids had to match a number with the tree with that number of apples on it: 

  

Every day my kids do a math problem in their journals and this week we had apple related probems each day: 

 

At the end of the week we did a super fun apple tasting activity where the kids voted on their favorite apple. After they tasted all four apples and voted, the kids filled out a graph:

We also learned about Johnny Appleseed and read a book about him. The kids then completed a web with things they learned about him: 

 Our craft for the week was painting apples with watercolors. They turned out beautiful:

 The next week (or the week of Halloween) we moved on to pumpkins.  We read two books over the week to learn more about the life cycle of a pumpkin:

During Science the kids filled out a web on what the learned and drew the life cycle:

In the middle of the week we took a field trip to a farm where the kids learned more about pumpkins and how they grow. Before we left the kids predicted what they would see and when we returned they filled out a checklist: 

In Math we did lots of fun pumpkin-related activities including pumpkin patterns, pumpkin seed book and halloween counting book: 

Just like during apple week, the kids did pumpkin-related word problems in their journals during pumpkin week:

 

 During the week we watched one of my favorite Halloween movies, Spookley the Square Pumpkin. The kids then made a Spookley craft where the chose an adjective to describe him:

 

We ended the week by carving two pumpkins. I had the kids help me get the seeds out and then they voted on what kind of face I should carve:

I then had the kids draw how-to carve a pumpkin: 

If you liked these activities, please check out the pictures below! The first four people to comment can get either my apple or pumpkin unit for free! Leave your email and your choice in the comments below! 

Fun with Plants

In addition to Halloween and Pumpkin activities, we were also doing a unit on plants. During our first week, we learned all about the parts of the plant! We read several books on the parts of the plant. These books gave us a lot of great information about what each part does for the plant:

In their science journal, they filled in a web with the different parts of the plant and illustrated them. They also worked on their Parts of the Plant book where each day (after reading a book on one part of the plant) they would write what that part did for the plant and colored that part on the plant.

That week was also the Science Fair so I decided to do our project on plants. Each class in the school does a project so every kid will have a project at the fair to show their parents. Students can also do their own individual projects but that is optional. Since I have my kids for kindergarten and 1st, I usually do a classification or investigation in Kinder and an experiment in 1st. We did our project on the parts of the plant where we took a plant walk around our school and took pictures of different parts of the plant we found.We also wrote about what each part of the plant does for the plant.

  

       

                

 
The same day as the Science Fair, we also took a field trip to a Christmas Tree Farm/Pumpkin Patch where the kids learned all about the life cycle of a pumpkin plant.  The kids first predicted what they would see:

 

(trees and pumpkins)

 

(Christmas trees)

 

(pumpkins)

When we got back, the kids filled in a scavenger hunt checklist by marking off everything we had seen. We actually saw everything on the list except a cow!

Finally, the kids wrote about what they had learned there. I was amazed at how well they observed and listened! Most of them wrote about the "girl flower" and "boy flower" on a pumpkin plant and how they need each other in order to make a pumpkin.

 

(I learned if the girl flower doesn't get pollen it will die)

 

(I learned there is a boy flower on a pumpkin.)

(I learned that there is a girl flower and a boy flower.)

During the second week, we focused more on the life cycle of a plant. My kids' favorite saying right now is "A life cycle goes on and on and on...." We read several life cycle books including "Seed to Sunflower" and "From Seed to a Pumpkin"

 

In their Science journals, the kids filled in a web on pumpkins where they drew pictures to show what they had learned about pumpkins over the past few weeks.

The kids also colored a "What Plants Need" book where they filled in what plants need to live and illustrated a picture of a plant:

 

 

On our last day of our plant unit, the kids did an easy plant craft where they made a flower and labeled the parts of the plant. If you'd like a copy of this craft, download it for free HERE on my TpT site. They turned out so cute! 

 

If you liked these activities make sure to check out my plant unit and pumpkin unit on TpT!