P is for...

P is for Pumpkin!

 

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Since I have had some children for multiple years in a row I try not to repeat "projects".  Each year I do try to do a pumpkin life cycle and this year I was trying to find something a little different.  Then I came across this activity at http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/. 

Visual Discrimination File Folder Activity.

I find that these are awesome activities for toddlers and younger preschoolers.  I don't use them quite so much with my older students unless there are a mixed age group. 

Monthly name writing and self-portrait sheet.  These are great to keep together until the end of the year to see the development from Sept. to May!

Ha!  First pic, obviously the child before hid them really good!  I see only the one in her hand! 1:1 and counting to 10 or 20 and, of course, free exploration with sensory material.  Peek preview to a new bean mixture (15 different types).  I wanted to see how they reacted to it and then I'll put it away until our B week.  Those little plastic pumpkins are so versatile!  :-)

Numerical order and counting with meaning.  I did include a number line since numerical order is not mastered by any of the preschool children yet.  We went up to 3 for the toddler,  5 for the younger preschooler and 10 for the older preschooler.  As you can see in the second picture, I simple cut pieces of masking tape and wrote the numeral and the numeral word.

Fresh playdough that actually turned out to be a perfect texture (been awhile!) made for some lovely P's, pumpkin patches, and birthday cakes!

I've done this in the past but hadn't had a whole lot of success after cutting out whatever shape we had planned on...so after TeachPreschool mentioned it a couple times I decided to try it again.  :-)  It's a "fingerpaint" mixture made up of glue and paint.  We made a letter D last week and this week we are making pumpkins.  The more "symmetrical" pumpkin is T.'s-2 years old.  Obviously, I helped him.  But....this was the first time he let me "help" him in anything that caused a "mess" on his hands.  He does NOT like it.  Today, I "helped" with one hand to go around and around after he used the glue spreader a bit and then he looked at his painted hand and then at his other hand and plopped his clean hand into the glue/paint mixture!  Progress! 

And, of course, we must do some writing on a pumpkin during our pumpkin theme!