The wonderful thing about doing a little preschool at home with my toddler is getting to do school in our pajamas!

This is the last week of our October Break, so we busted out a little mini-pumpkin unit for "school time" this week!  Here's a look at the unit!

1.  Pumpkin Observations

The first day, we "observed" the outside of our pumpkin and talked about what we noticed that our little pumpkin had...

We observed a "boo-boo" on the bottom...
 a stem...

And I helped him notice the bumps on the outside...

My Pumpkin Book of Observations

We wrote our observations in our pumpkin book.  {{side note...forgive some of my printouts as my printer ran out of black ink and I couldn't get more in time to finish this week! BOO!}}

We read the sentence together and then Cooper found the picture to match the text in our book.
We glued the picture in our book...

And traced the words with our very, very special "pumpkin pen."  My little has problems using enough pressure to write with crayon, so I decided to try the special pen so he wouldn't have to use as much pressure...I wanted him to be able to see what he was writing and the pen helped with that!

Adding dots under the words of our books really helps Cooper with his pointing, so I added tiny pumpkins under each word to help his pointing...works like a charm!


2. Pumpkin Letter Match

After we worked on our book, we matched upper and lowercase letters.  Even though my pumpkin packet has all of the letters, I decided to only match 6 letters at a time to make it less overwhelming for Coop.  Plus, since my printer was out of black ink, it probably wouldn't have helped to print all of them out this week! ;)

 He loved finding matches!  We even played the "real" way with the cards turned upside down.  This was a little harder for him to do because he tried to turn over two capitals to match...easy fix for this next time we play {or when you play with your toddler} is that I'll add a sticker to the back of the cards...one color for the capitals and one color for the lowercase so he can easily tell to match one from each color!


3. Pumpkin Insides

The second day, we worked on observing the inside of our pumpkin.  We took this project outside since we would have a bit of a mess!  We did most of our work in the large plastic tub to help with clean up, which worked great!


Sweet Cooper does not like messes at all...which has its perks, but the down side is he refuses to stick his hand in a pumpkin!  So, I made him come up with another way to get the seeds and pulp out.  Little stinker is a creative thing!


We talked about the vocabulary words "seeds" and "pulp" and I had him show me each one...poor stem broke off of our pumpkin!

Then, we took turns filling our tiny pumpkin with dirt...
 planted the seeds...
 added some water...
and found a special spot in the sun for our pumpkin planter.... {how cute is the underwear peeking out!}

Years ago, before our animal unit was moved to the fall, I did pumpkin projects with my firsties and we planted seeds in our big "class" pumpkin....but I loved using this mini-pumpkin for Cooper.  It was the perfect size for my little tot! :)

As we talked about our vocabulary words during our observations, we added our vocab cards to our "pumpkin word wall" upstairs at our school station!  We added pumpkin and stem on day one, seeds and pulp on day two when we cut the pumpkin open, and then added sprout and vine after we planted the seeds so Cooper would know what we were watching for!

4. Pumpkin Counting Collections

Then, we came inside and washed our seeds to count!  I just slipped the page for counting in a ziploc bag to protect it from the slimy seeds.
When we do pumpkins in first grade, we count our seeds counting collection style...but for my little tot, I wanted him to just work on building sets of seeds to match numbers.  He had a blast doing this!  I even saved the seeds after we toasted them so that he can use them over and over!

5. Pumpkin Cookies

We finished up this unit by making these amazing pumpkin cookies together so that Cooper could try out a little pumpkin! Pinterest for the win again!

Cooper had so much fun with this unit!  And mommy had fun making memories and learning all wrapped up in one!
Sometimes the best strategies are the ones that are the simplest.

Anybody have good old fashioned tricks of the trade that work and require no prep?

I've got a few I've used over the years.  They are my go to strategies in my classroom and a staple during my phonics instruction...plus, since they are Total Physical Response strategies, they are perfect for my ELL babies!

>>>Arm Segmentation<<<

This one has been with me since the beginning of time....err, my teaching career.  When we break apart words, we break them apart on our arms.

The beginning sound is touched and spoken on the shoulder...
How 'bout my cutie patootie model?  October break calls for models who aren't firsties! :)

The middle sound is touched and spoken on the elbow...

And the ending sound is touched and spoke on the hand.

Then the hand slides from the shoulder down to the hand to blend it all back together.

This strategy is a perfect Total Physical Response strategy that gives my tactile learners some support.  It is also great for asking, "What sound did you hear in the middle of crab?" while touching your elbow, etc....to give them that visual and tactile cue.

Super easy and the kids use it all. the. time.  I see kiddos daily using their arms to break apart words during Writers' Workshop.  It's easy to remember and you carry the materials around with you every where you go! :)

>>>Break It Down Chant<<<

A few years into teaching, I gained a new teammate who taught us her "Break It Down" chant along with the next chant I'll share below.  I immediately knew this is what I needed to spice up my phonics and arm segmentation.



Essentially, we do the arm segmentation while chanting the break it down chant.  Here's how it goes.

*snapping to the beat*
Break it down (snap)
Break it down (snap)
Break.  It. (snap)  Down (snap)
I say the word,
YOU say the sounds.
T: Cab.
S: /c/ /a/ /b/

The kids go cRaZy over this one.  Seriously.  And then when we need to transfer segmentation into spelling words it works so beautifully.  We write a line for each sound we hear.  

I add a "scoop" to connect to lines to just add a visual that two letters blend their sound.  This has been so so powerful during our intervention time as well as in whole group {read more about how we transfer our segmenting into spelling new words HERE.}


Put both of these strategies together, and this CVC phonics sort and activity becomes a little more manageable with the Total Physical Response scaffolding...

>>>Slippity Slide Chant<<<

Here's the other chant I learned from my sweet former teammate...  It's the reverse of the Break It Down one.  We do some totally awesome sliding moves with our arms on this one! :)
Slide, slide, 
slippity slide
I say the sounds,
YOU make it glide!
T: /c/ /a/ /b/
S: cab!

Need help spelling a word? Break it down!

Need help reading a word? Slide it out!

>>>Word Family Cha-Ching!<<<

This is another Total Physical Response strategy I've used for pretty much ever during phonics.  When we are brainstorming word families, practicing rhyming words, onsets and rimes...we pull out our cha-chings.

The onset is on our thumb....

The rime is on the palm of our hand...

The whole word gets read while we make a fist and cha-ching our hand back to our body...


This is great for when kids are ready to read by onset and rime instead of individual sounds.  It's also great for phonemic awareness when we are listening to see if words rhyme.

What I love about each of these strategies is that they are perfect for first grade phonics.  They work for CVC words, but they also work for blend words and most other one syllable words.  These are strategies I can literally use all year long...and my kids use them all year long too!

What free strategies do you like to use?
Anyone else feel like science and social studies are the first thing to get cut in K-2?

Like the only science you may do in October is a cute TpT printable with a pumpkin slapped on it?

No judgement here.  It happens in my room too.

And more so this year....

This year I'm at a new school with a different schedule.  I have 1 hour--yes, 1 hour--of planning time every day....and, no, I'm not ABOUT to complain about it! ;)  But that is 20 minutes less of instruction time than last year.  Add in a full 30 minute recess again (Thank you, Jesus....) and I have about 30 minutes each day that isn't in our classroom that has been in years past.

PLUS, 4 days a week, we switch for intervention/extra guided reading groups for AN HOUR!

So, I'm slim to none on time for direct content this year.   And that makes my heart sad because I love teaching content to littles and the firsties *l*o*v*e* science and social studies.  Sure, I'm able to integrate some non-fiction read alouds that tie into our units and write about the topics we learn about, but it's always nice to have a few days of direct content teaching.  So, I was determined to find a way to squeeze in some science this year even with the little time I had in my classroom...

My compromise has been not teaching as much...and teaching in 10-15 minute windows of time...during our "snack" time.  While kids eat their snack each day, we do a little bit of content.  Also, on Mondays when we don't have an hour long intervention time, I have a larger block of time to do some longer science activities.

Right now we are in the middle of our Animals unit so my weekly schedule looks like this...

Mondays (30 minute block because we don't have intervention):

We start the week by introducing the animal group we will be learning about for that week by doing a close reading on a passage about the animal.  Ideally, this is not what I would do first...but since this activity takes longer and Mondays are the days I have more time, this is what I'm doing first this year.

{Also, when we start doing the human body after break...I will be able to use my Monday time for our hands-on-projects since I will have a little more time!}

Here's a close read of muscles from last year's human body study... {Read a detailed blog about my close reading procedures here.}


We began our unit talking about listening for specific details--called key details--in a text.  We discussed what specific information would be important to know about each group of animals {this information was determined by my Arkansas State Science Frameworks for animal classification}.

This really helps focus our research and conversation.

As we find key details in our close read we chart our facts.  This chart will be added to throughout the week...

Tuesdays (10-15 minute block during snack time):

We review information we charted from the previous day and watch part of an Animal Atlas video on our animal group.  The Animal Atlas videos are about 20 minutes long so we usually watch one part during snack and the rest of it after we clean up in the afternoon instead of a read aloud or class meeting.  Other weeks, I have a really good book I want to read so I just do a read aloud on one of these days.  And another great source on animals is Pebble Go.

No matter what text we use or what source we use to get our information, we are still listening for key details and charting those using anchor chart templates from my Animals Unit Packet.  We also chart other interesting details--we call focus facts--as well.

Wednesdays (10-15 minute block during snack time):

Again, we review our research and learning we've charted all week and then we have Wonder Wednesdays and work on writing a question we are wondering about our animal group.  To filter the questions down to an amount that's doable, I have each group talk together and agree upon one question to write.  They write their question on a sticky note and then bring it to me to read and add to our chart.
{{{Side Note: I get this question every year. Every. Stinkin'. Year.  Still trying to rack my brain as to why this didn't get asked for the first time in 10 years... :)}}}
If we have time, we start researching and answering questions....if not, we wait until later in the week.

Thursdays:

Thursdays are my crazy days.  You know, the one where I have an extra 30 minute activity/planning time and an additional P.E. time to satisfy our physical activity laws...

So, yeah, content doesn't usually happen on this day. #realtalk

HOWEVER, we do usually start writing about our animal group on Thursdays.  Sometimes we are ready to start on Wednesdays, and sometimes it's Thursdays.  It just depends on our week.  Here's a past blog on how I do informative writing on animals.

Fridays (10-15 minute block during snack time):

We spend Fridays researching our questions and recording our answers during snack time.  The kids absolutely love this and learn quickly that sometimes answering questions just leads to more questions to ask!

Plus, it's a great opportunity to talk about sources of information on the internet and how to find a trusted source.

So, yes, I'm teaching less direct content this year....but I'm doing what I can because it's what keeps first graders engaged!  And the great thing about science and social studies in the younger grades is that so much of it is literacy based.  When we are learning to read and write non-fiction, why not just use non-fiction texts on a theme {animals} to drive that learning?  That's the easiest time saver I've found to teach literacy skills and content all at the same time!

How do you find time to squeeze in science and social studies?
Last year, I was a part of a leadership math team that received professional development from a measurement guru, Rich Lehrer.  This linear measurement unit is from his research and writing team.

One of the many things I love about Rich's measurement units is the intentional planning for mistakes.  In many ways, his units set kids up to make mistakes...which is sometimes opposite of what we think we should do as teachers.  But, I've learned that kids have to make mistakes in measurement to learn why their mistake is a problem.  And those mistakes make for some very lively and deep math conversations about what is actually important when we measure!

No mistakes means kids are just copying our "how to measure steps" and that makes it hard to transfer that measuring skill to a new object or with a different unit.

Pumpkin Attributes

Our math practice goal for this unit was "#6: I can attend to precision."  We referred back to this word and why it's important that we are precise when measuring throughout the whole unit.

We looked at one of our pumpkins and answered the question: "How can I describe this pumpkin?"  As we got responses, we charted them.  If my first grader said, "It's bumpy," then I answered with, "Yes, bumpy describes its feel.  One attribute of objects I can describe is feel."  I wanted to chart the attributes, not the adjectives.

After we charted, we discussed which attributes are measurable.  For example, I cannot accurately measure color, but I can measure weight.  I then told students we would be measuring height and circumference of our pumpkins.  I added the pumpkin stickers to those words to help us remember since we would be working on this project for a few days.

Measuring Pumpkin Circumference

I had 4 pumpkins as the unit recommended, and put kids in groups of 6.  Each person in the group had a job: pumpkin holder, streamer holder (2), cutter, labeler, taper.  {Side note: 4 pumpkins was not enough in my opinion....the groups were too big and caused some management issues....I would recommend 6 pumpkins so the groups are only 3-4 kids.}

Some groups measured the circumference just fine...

Other groups measured the circumference around the bottom.
{And other groups, not pictured, measured a vertical circumference instead of a horizontal circumference.}  All of these mistakes were fine by me because it gave us some things to discuss during our share time.

Planning for Mistake #1: Measuring the circumference of a pumpkin is difficult because the roundness of the pumpkin varies from top to bottom.  Using a sphere shape for this activity was important because it meant kids would make this mistake...and then we would be able to talk about where circumference is measured (at the point where the object is the biggest around)....that wouldn't have meant anything to kids if we didn't have this problem to start with!

Once the streamer was cut to measure the circumference, the labeler wrote the pumpkin number on the streamer.

The groups had about 2 minutes at each pumpkin station.  Then, the groups were to use the streamers from each pumpkin station and large construction paper to order the circumference lengths in a display.  The taper taped the streamers on with tape so they would be easier to come on and off during share time.

During share time, we looked at all of the circumference streamer from pumpkin number 1 and discussed these questions:

Did each group measure the same circumference?  Are they all the same length?

Why aren't they the same length?  What mistakes did we make that may have caused our measurements to not be precise?

What is important when we measure so that we don't make these mistakes?

Measuring Pumpkin Height

The next day, we repeated the same steps as Day 2, but with height instead of circumference...

Planning for Mistake #2: Measuring the height of a round object is difficult to do....do you follow the curve of the pumpkin or measure a straight line up for the height?  I had groups that did each of these...which made for a very important conversation about why length and height must be measured in a straight line.


Measurement Anchor Chart

During share time, we discussed the same questions and continued to chart them...

We referred to this chart all year long during our measurement math talks.  Not everything on this chart was added the first day, or even by the end of this unit.  In fact, last year's group didn't add "no gaps" to this list until our second measurement unit...because using streamers solves the problem of gaps.  It wasn't until we started measuring with paperclips that we had issues with gaps! {Planning for mistake #3}  And even though they had added "no overlaps" they continued to make mistakes and overlap when measuring with new materials....so this was an ongoing discussion.  And we reread through our "measurement rules" before each measurement activity during the year.

While I would change a few things like I mentioned earlier, this unit is a fantastic way to get kids excited about measurement and it's perfect for making kids make mistakes when they measure so that we have something to discuss and learn from!
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