Hiding Pumpkins in the forest!

Yellow group's pumpkin.

Raking the leaves

With so many leaves on the ground our group today was issued rakes and shovels and got to work raking a big pile of leaves.  Some of the kids chose to use the shovels to dig in the mole hills. There were 2 big discoveries in the shovel pail:  birdseed left over from a previous project and a dried dead frog.  The frog was put into the bug box with the 3 lady bugs that the kids had found and the birdseed was planted in the mole hills.  I wonder if it will sprout in the spring?

During circle time today each child was given a turn to talk about what they had done during play that morning.  The kids were quiet and raised their hands to talk.  Each child had their turn speaking.  Soon it was time to take our pumpkins into the woods and hide them!

Why did we hide the pumpkins?  We are looking forward to seeing what the pumpkins will do during the winter.  Will animals eat them?  Will they get all moldy and squishy?  Each group took their pumpkin and hid them along the trail.  We had to then figure out a way to remember where we hid the pumpkin. The yellow group hid theirs near a trail crossing.  We'll see if the kids can find the same trail crossing next Tuesday!  One child told everyone that we crossed 2 bridges and went up a hill to get to where we hid the pumpkin.  Other kids were looking around to see what kind of landmarks there were.

The blue group hiked deep into the woods to find the perfect spot for our pumpkin to decompose.  We observed that it already has some mold inside and the mouth is beginning to shrivel.  We will stop by throughout this year and next to see how our pumpkin changes as it rots.  We are wondering "Will slugs and other forest creatures stop by for a nibble on our pumpkin?".

There was fun digging a hole in an old stump.  They were digging "to the center of the earth.". Others went fishing and made little umbrellas from giant leaves.

At lunch we sang the "5 Little Pumpkin" song again with 5 real little pumpkins.  Then Max spent some time playing  an addition game-adding and subtracting pumpkins to add up to 5.  All of the children were interested in his math game.

One of the things I love about teaching outdoors is the constant feeling that I can teach it all out there.  We played math games today while reading a book about a farm.  We counted the animals on our hands and added them up.  I watched as the children's faces were rapt with interest.  They want to learn math.  The love it!  When we hand out the children's snack we hold up the snack with the child's name on it and ask whose snack is this.  The children are beginning to recognize other children's names and read them off.  All of this is accomplished while sitting on a log in the drizzle and drip of the rainforest.  Wonderful!