Teaching Common Core Standards With A Craft

From Seeds To Pumpkin Pie -- Life Cycle Craftivity

life cycle of a pumpkin, october arts and crafts, pumpkin activities, october bulletin boards, october bulletin board ideas, common core math lessons for kindergarten, common core math lessons for 1st grade, shape lessons, shape activities, I LOVE teaching hands-on "craftivities." They are wonderful vehicles that get students motivated and excited to learn.

They involve a multitude of senses as I incorporate all sorts of skills, report card standards and subjects.

From Seeds To Pumpkin Pie is an example of how I do this.

The front of the pumpkin reviews all of the basic shapes, including the hexagon, as students design their Jack-O-Lantern. (K.G.2)

Students can draw them on their orange circle or give them an assortment of the various shapes, by pre-cutting them out of black construction paper. I would opt for the latter with Y5’s or younger.

I’ve found that little ones are often frustrated with reproducing shapes, particularly triangles, so they make a dot here and there and put a smile on their pumpkin face, which defeats the purpose of the lesson.

This way you’ll get all sorts of unique Jack-O-Lanterns with hexagons, ovals, triangles etc.

Things are also done in a short amount of time, yet students are still getting a good fine motor skill work out.

Listening and following directions is imperative to assembling their project, which can be whole-group assessed.

The back of the pumpkin converts into a pie and is divided into quarters and shows the life cycle, so you’ll be teaching science.

A cycle is done in a specific order, so you can review ordinal numbers as well. i.e., first we plant seeds, second we’ll see a sprout, third the yellow flower will appear etc.

The picture is divided into 1/4ths so it’s perfect to introduce or review fractions (Common Core math standard1.G.3) with first graders.

That’s specifically why I added the 2 skill sheets with the pumpkin pie and stem activities, so 1st grade students can work on partitioning circles (pumpkin pies) and rectangles (pumpkin stems) into two and four equal shares; describing the shares using the words halves, fourths & quarters. (1.G.3)

Click on the link to view/download From Seeds To Pumpkin Pie

I hope your little “punkins” enjoy this hands-on craftivity, while they’re learning Common Core.

Their self-esteem will be built as they see their work dangling from the ceiling in the hallway too. What a treat!