1-2-3 Come Do Some "Room on the Broom" Measurement Activities With Me

Do you read “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson? It’s one of my students’ favorite Halloween stories.

It occurred to me, while thinking about the many animals that are being added to the broom, that I could really make this lesson come alive, by having students figure out how many of THEM could fit on a broom.

I had an absolute blast creating these quick, easy & fun activities, all of which have to do with measurement, and are easy-peasy “print & go”.

I know that your students will truly enjoy these hands-on “experiments” using a real broom.

The activities can be done as a whole group with younger kiddos, or in groups of 3-5 students.

Decide what format is best for your class, and pick the various "Room on a Broom" “challenges” accordingly.

If you’re looking for an educational & engaging activity for your Halloween party day, I think you’ll find this to be an absolute winner.

There’s plenty of options, so you can easily diversify your lessons.

Activities will help practice cooperation, estimation, measurement, addition, “thinking outside the box”, graphing, brainstorming, data collection, observation & analysis.

Students can also compare & contrast whether using a pool noodle, provides more room on a broom than a regular broomstick.

I made a "yes/no" graphing extension for this. Kiddos come up and write their name in the appropriate column.

Not too surprising, almost all of my students thought you could fit more kiddos on a pool noodle. 

I think this is because they see it as "fatter," thus there should be more room.

This is much like the fact that my Y5s have a hard time remembering that a nickel is worth 5 cents, while a dime is worth 10.  They think that the nickel should be worth 10 cents because it is bigger. Makes perfect sense to me!

This leads us into a wondeful discussion about length and how that's the most important variable when loading people on a broom.

There’s also a bonus challenge (“The teacher wants to ‘drive’ the broom...") to extend the math lesson if time permits, or simply add this activity to another day.

“Something to Think About….” is another extension activity: here a new student has just arrived along with the dragon! You must fit them on your already full broom! How can you do that?

A “Save the Day!” activity, gives students yet another option to try out for “making room on their classroom broom.” In the end, will they have enough room to save the principal from the dragon as well?

"Delving Deeper!" and "Let's Make Convertions" ( inches to feet, feet to yards...) provide for more measurement activities.

Taking pictures as your children do the various activities, combined with the “challenge worksheets”, makes for a great bulletin board or hallway display.

I’ve included several posters to add some extra pizzazz.

If you'd like your students to listen to the story again, YouTube has a nice 8-minute read aloud.

After your measurement activities, you could watch the Netflix “Room on the Broom” video, which takes just 24 minutes.

Woo Hoo; some quiet time at the end of a fun-filled day.

If you’d like to practice sequencing & retelling the story on another day, check out the LINK for my “Room on the Broom Storytelling Craftivity”.

Today's featured FREEBIE is "10 Little Pumpkins" song-poster with manipulatives. 

It goes to the tune of "10 Little Indians" . My kiddos really enjoy this activity. 

It's also an easy & quick way to practice +1 addition, as well as counting backwards from 10-1.

I hope you find it useful.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

The rain has finally stopped and Mr. Sunshine has made an appearance.

I'm excited to buy some pumpkins and cornstalks to go with my mums. Love decorating for fall.

Wishing you and the little "punkins" in your life, a frolicking & fun-filled day. 

"Skill to do, comes of doing." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

1-2-3 Come Practice Math With Me

I'm really excited about the M & M (Math & Me) booklet.  It's a super-fun way to practice all sorts of math and measurement skills, and is versatile enough to fit a variety of ages. (PK-4th)

I’ve organized the pages in the PDF, so that the first 11 pages are the easiest.  As the booklet progresses, it gets a bit more difficult.

Simply choose the pages that are appropriate for your kiddos. 
You can do several pages a day in class, or send home as homework.

PK kiddos can complete a simplified booklet, with one-on-one help from their family.

Sharing parts of the booklet, like the family page, is an interesting way for students to get to know their classmates.

Finished projects make a wonderful keepsake too.

Completing the booklet, involves using:
a ruler, measuring tape, scale, calendar, clock, addition, subtraction, counting, ordinal numbers, coins, tally marks, a 10 frame, fractions, greater & less than, geography, odd & even, comparison/contrast, data collection & analysis, writing, number sense, logic and imagination.

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to have a look see at this 23-page, math-packed activity: M & M Math & Me Keepsake Booklet.  

The featured FREEBIE today is another "Me" activity.  This is entitled "Owl About Me" and is a super-easy, quick, & fun "getting to know you" activity.

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  It's rainy and the wind is making it even more chilly. 

The perfect kind of day to snuggle up by the fire with a good book.   Wishing you a warm and cozy, lazy kind of day.

"Couds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." -Rabindranath Tagore

 1-2-3 Come Do Some More 100-Day Activities With Me

If you're like me, you've started looking for a few more quick, easy and fun ideas to add to your collection of 100-Day activities. One Hundred Day was one of my favorite celebrations, second only to Valentine's Day, which was my favorite.

Everything we did related to that number, from reading 100-Day stories, to making class books with writing prompts about 100 and of course lots of super-fun math activities, which my Y5's really enjoyed. 

Counting that high can be a bit tedious for a young five, so I tried to think of a variety of ways for them to practice.  Watching numbers flash on a screen to some catchy music, is a visually fun way to count.  I spent about an hour looking at short "count to 100" videos on YouTube. 

Here are a few of the best ones:  "We Can Count To 100" (1:52) simply flashes colorful numbers as they count in a sing-song way.  "The Big Numbers Song" also counts to 100.  I especially like this 3:11 minute video clip, because the voice is soft and soothing, and also shows the number words, which we were also working on.

Dr. Jean keeps students engaged with her (2:17 minute) Macarena Math Time counting to 100 song, by showing and repeating the Macarena dance movements, as she counts to 100.  She also breaks up the counting, by ending each segment of 10 with: "That makes ______ 10s."  i.e. ". . . 78. 79, 80! That makes 8 tens."

If you have a superhero theme going on in your classroom, your kiddos will enjoy the (2:27 minute) "Count To 100 Superhero"  clip.  It has a catchy beat that your students will enjoy.  Finally, click on the link for  a counting to 100s video with a jazzy beat.  With all of the bright colors, your little ones will find it visually appealing.

Besides counting by ones, my Y5s were also learning how to skip count by 10s to 100. With that in mind, I just finished designing some quilt block bookmarks yesterday. 

I've included a blank template, where students write in the numbers, as well as one with the skip counted numbers filled in, in both black line and full color.

Choose which one you want your students to have.  As a whole group, use them to practice skip counting by 10s.

For some fun, non-standard unit of measurement practice, have students use their bookmarks to fill in the measurement worksheet.

Making a 100-Day Pizza is also a non-boring way to count.  I haven't come upon a child that doesn't list pizza as one of their favorite foods, so I thought it would be fun to design a paper craftivity one. 

There are several templates to choose from.  If your kiddo's are learning to skip count by 10's to 100 then use that pizza pattern.  If they're also counting to 100 by 5's, you can give them a choice.

The packet reviews quite a few Common Core State Standards: RF.K1a, RF.K1c, RF.K3c, L.K.2a, L.K.2b, RF.1.1a, L.1.2b, K.G.2, K.CC.1, K.OA.1

Students read the simple sentences filled with quite a few Dolch sight words, circle the capital letters and add the end punctuation.

Besides skip counting by 5s and 10s, there are also opportunities in the booklet to skip count by 2s and 3s. 

The 100-Day pizza packet, also includes a paper pizza craftivity, 2 graphing extensions, a shape sorting mat, pizza patterning page and a count the pizza slices by 5's worksheet.

For simpler counting, students can arrange the toppings by 10 groups of 10, or 20 groups of 5, depending on how you want them to count to 100.

The 100-Day pizza, also reviews 2D-shapes as well as colors.  Completed projects make a terrific 100-Day bulletin board.

Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Pizza Packet.

If you're looking for more 100-Day FREEBIES, check out my Pinterest Boards.  I have one especially for 100 Day.

That's it for today. Thanks for visiting.   However you plan to celebrate, I hope your day is filled with lots of fun "ed-ventures"!

My grandchildren are stopping by for a few hours, so it's time to put my Nana hat on.  I'm looking forward to some major snuggle time, as Kaitlyn is only 2-months-old, and Kaiden is two.  Wishing you a love-filled day.

"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so that I never have to live without you." -Winnie the Pooh (A. A. Milne)

1-2-3 Come Do Some Apple Investigations With Me

Yesterday's articles featured all sorts of apple craftivities.  Today's apples incorporate a bit of science and math.  Whenever I started a themed unit, I always began by reading some interesting books. 

To cover all sorts of genre, I included fiction as well as non fiction stories, and sprinkled in some poems and songs too.  To get a list of my apple books, click on the link.  Another thing I did, was to do some research of my own.

One of my favorite things about the Internet, is the incredible amount of material on the web.  People have spent hours sharing their knowledge and ideas, and I'm grateful. 

I absolutely LOVE doing research and finding out interesting information about the things my students will be studying.  I'm always amazed at the amount of "cool stuff" that I also learn along the way. 

While doing research for my apple unit, I compiled a list of 125 interesting facts about apples, and thought I'd share it with you. 

Highlight the facts you want to share with your students.  After you read the information, test students' comprehension, by having them write 3 facts down on the recording sheet that's provided. 

They could also add facts to some of the art projects discussed yesterday, like writing information on a paper chain for the 3D apple "dangler" activity.  Click on the link to grab your copy of the 125 Interesting Apple Facts.

A quick, easy and fun way to get some science into your lessons, is to cover the life cycle of an apple. 

For hands-on learning, I've designed 4 different "craftivities" to show the life cycle of an apple. 

Completed projects make awesome bulletin boards, or decorations for your hallway. (Suspend them from the ceiling, as a border along a wall.)

The first packet features an apple, apple pie, and apple tree option. 

You can choose which you feel is most age-appropriate, or give older students a choice.  Click on the link for the Life Cycle of an Apple packet. 

This packet will be FREE for an entire year (!) after which time, it will be up-dated and rolled into my 33-page Life Cycle of an Apple Activities packet in my TpT shop.

The fourth option, is an apple "dangler" because once completed, it looks terrific dangling from the ceiling. 

I made it 3 dimensional by doubling up on the tree and apple cut outs (folding and gluing them together) and making the apple blossom out of a coffee filter that I edged with pink marker.  

Click on the link for the Life Cycle of an Apple Dangler craft.

Finally, for some apple math activities, I designed the apple investigations packet.  It will help your students learn about measurement.

Children measure height, weight, width and circumference of their apple. They trace and write vocabulary-building words, predict, answer questions, plus collect and analyze data.

As you can see, a lot of standards are covered in this simple booklet.  Click on the link above, to grab your FREEBIE.  

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  For another fun writing prompt "craftivity" scroll down to the next blog article to take a look at the Johnny Appleseed packet.

I'm writing this early Saturday morning so that it will automatically go live on Sunday.  I really try to limit my computer time on the weekends.  Having family coming over for a day of swimming, certainly helps me "behave".  I'm off to get ready for some memory-making fun. 

"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some "M & M" Stuff With Me

I'm a firm believer in making things personal for students.  If you relate things to their world, you quickly grab their attention and enthusiasm for the activity follows. 

With that in mind, I wanted to design some sort of "me math," where students could use a variety of math concepts to answer questions about themselves. 

I find that most students really enjoy sharing this sort of information, and the result of showing them all the math that is a personal part of them, might be quite surprising to some.

The idea of "me math" led to doing something with an M&M theme.  I originally toyed with the idea of each student making a colorful M&M character and filling it with "me math" information, but after I made a list of all of the number-related things that I could think of, that students might be interested in sharing, my list was so long that the idea of getting this inside an M&M creature, was now out.

When I was researching "me math" to see if anyone else out there was doing something along that line, I found quite a few poster and pennant ideas, so I didn't want to go that route. 

No one had done a booklet, or delved into some deeper math extensions, thus my M&M Math & Me booklet was born.

To conserve paper, there are 2 pages on each master.  Pick and choose whatever is appropriate for your grade level. 

Your booklet can be a few pages, or add several math extensions to practice more standards and make a longer booklet, that students can work on a little bit each day for the first or last week of school. 

I've included basic counting, measuring, greater & less than, equations, addition, subtraction, ordinal numbers, time, odd & even, skip counting by 2's, place value, number sentences, comparison, tally marks, and even fractions!

From teeth to travels, I think you'll find the personal math questions interesting and fun.  I was especially excited to find a Scrabble and M&M font to use with the My Name Math pages. 

Choose simple math concepts for kinders, or add a few more difficult pages and send the booklet home to have parents help their child with.   Click on the link to view/download the M&M Math & Me booklet. 

If you're looking for a "me math" poster that your kiddos can make, click on the link to take a look at Melissa Machan's Math About Me FREEBIE.  I absolutely LOVE the poster poem she wrote.   It would be a wonderful introduction to any "me math" activity.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it" button is at the top.  Do you have a "me math" activity you'd like to share with us?  Feel free to leave a comment or contact me at: diane@teachwithme.com

"Math may not teach me how to add love, or subtract hate, but it gives me every reason to hope that every problem has a solution." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Money-Related 100-Day Activities With Me

Because Presidents' Day is in February, and presidents are often featured on our currency, I taught a themed-unit on money at this time.   Identifying coins and knowing their values, was a Y5 report card standard. 

Our 100-Day also fell in February, so I liked to give my students some 100-Day coin ativities, to practice and reinforce the monetary concepts I was trying to teach them.

With that in mind, I just completed a "Making Cents On 100 Day" packet. (Play on the word sense intended.)  There's a fun variety of different activities included.

I revamped my Y5's personal favorite, which was "earning" 100 dollar bills with their picture on them. 

As a motivational incentive, I showed them the play money I had run off on light green paper.  I've included a template in the Making Cents packet, so you can make some for your kiddo's too.  Trust me, they will get very excited over this!

My Y5's earned bills through out the day for completing tasks, winning/participating in timed-tasks etc.  At the end of the day, students could trade one of their bills for one of their friends. 

Hopefully they had earned enough of their own, to collect one from each classmate.  I never had a child who hadn't earned enough, as my Y5's really enjoyed our 100-Day activities. Everyone stayed focused and on-task. 

I also scattered a class set, on our 100-Day bulletin board that said: You Can Bank On Mrs. Henderson's Y5's Being 100 Days Smarter!  I made some bills with my own photograph as well.  Children could add a cover and staple their bills into a little booklet if they wanted to.  Some preferred to take them home loose.

They could also earn a 100 Dollar Bill bookmark.  Challenge students to earn 10 different stickers throughout the day, that they can put on the back of their "Ben Bill" and then count by 10's to 100. 

Besides these items, the packet also includes a variety of interesting worksheets, where students trace and write the coin words, tell their values, and figure out an assortment of  "how many?" problems. 

Children get some scissor fine-motor practice in, by cutting and gluing the matching pictures to the appropriate pages. 

There are also several worksheets for skip counting the coins, as well as measuring stacks and lines of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Finally, there's a 100-Day writing prompt included in the packet as well.

On the one-hundred dollar bill worksheet, students complete the prompt: "If I had 100, one-hundred dollar bills, I would have  _______________ dollars!  If I had that much money I would . . ." and ends with: How many one-hundred dollar bills would you need to make 100,000 dollars?

Click on the link to view/download the Making Cents On 100 Day packet. Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"We've all been counting one-by-one; Hurrah! Hurrah!  We've all been counting, oh what fun;  Hurray! Hurrah!
We've all been counting one-by-one,  and now 100 days are done, so we all go marching up, and down, and all around. 
Boom, boom, boom."

9 pages.

These are some different and interesting writing, counting and measuring activities, for your 100-Day celebration, that involve money.

1-2-3 Come Do Some More  "Fun-tastic" 100 Day Activities With Me

Terri teaches 3-year-old preschool in Oklahoma, and asked if I could make a 100 Day coloring page for her kiddo's.  I put two on a page to conserve paper.  Older students could fill up the numbers with groups of 5 or 10 things to add up to 100. (Dots, X's, stickers, etc.) Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day coloring page.

Carleen, in Illinois, requested an easy 100 Day crown for her kinders. If you didn't see the 100 Day crown that incorporated 100 shapes (click on the link to grab it.) In the 100-Day Crown packet, I've included 3 simpler crowns.

Since quite a few people celebrate 100 Day in February, I designed a heart-shaped crown.  Run off on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim.  Using 10 different colored markers, children make 10 groups of 10 dots, inside the 100 number; trim and glue to the center of the heart. 

Staple the heart to a sentence strip or bulletin board boarder to make an easy 100 Day crown. If your kiddo's are in PK, you can skip the counting by 10's to 100 dot portion, and simply have them color the number. 

100 Rocks! is another easy crown to make.  Since it has 5 balls on the top of the points, have students make twenty groups of 5 dots inside the crown, and then skip count to 100 by 5's.  I grouped my dots to look like the 5 on a dice pattern.  Run off on construction paper, trim and glue or staple to a paper headband.

My personal favorite, is the "circle-jeweled" crown.  There are 104 circles on the crown. I purposely did not make 100, as I discovered that no matter what "guessing" activity I gave my Y5's, they were always guessing the number 100, simply because it was 100 Day. 

I've included a guess-timation page, where students write down how many circles they think are on the crown and then compare their answer to the correct one.  This is a nice review of the math terms greater than, less than and equal to. 

Buy a pack of 475 Avery mini-colored dot-stickers for less than $2, and have your kiddo's get some fine motor practice in, while they peel and press the dots on the circles of their crown.  Flat-backed rhinestones are also fun, and add that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Crown packet.

Since the back-to-school banners were so popular this fall, I decided to dream up 2 for your 100 Day celebration.  One of the "craftivities" that my Y5's really enjoyed doing, was drawing a picture of how they would look if they lived to be 100. 

Before hand, we discussed how a person ages, and things that were typical of the aging process.  i.e. hair turning gray and white, wrinkles, sagging skin, the need to wear glasses etc. I reminded them of what "granny" had looked like the day before.

On the 99th Day of school, my 100-year-old granny came to school and read them a few 100 Day books. 

This was really me dressed up to the hilt to look like an old woman for story time.  Click on the link to check out the details of this fun activity.  

After our aging discussion, I gave my kiddo's a construction paper oval and they drew in their details. When they were done, they ran their portrait through the "cruncher muncher."

This is a roller tool that crinkles paper to look like corrugated cardboard.  The result was a nice "wrinkled" appearance which you can see in the sample photo.  The completed pictures made an adorable 100 Day bulletin board. 

This year I thought it would be fun to make the self-portraits smaller and have students draw themselves inside an oval.  When they are done, they choose a colored pennant and glue their photo in place. 

Punch holes on either side of the pennants and tie together with yarn.  Hang as a border on a hallway wall, or suspend from your ceiling. 

I've included templates for the first and last pennants, as well as one for the boys, plus one for the girls.   Make sure to make one of yourself. Click on the link to view/download the Oldies One Hundred Day Banner.

If you're a tech type of person, you may want to download an aging app.  After over an hour of research, I found that the 2 best apps that will age a photo, are Oldify and Aging Booth.  Both have been given 4 to 5 stars depending on the review page you're on; and both cost .99 cents.

Since there were more positive reviews about Oldify, I downloaded that.  It has the added bonus of being able to record your voice.  The eyes blink, the mouth moves and your photo appears a bit "real".  

Make sure you "play" around with whatever you decide, as I didn't find Oldify all that easy to figure out.  You can always Google the app on YouTube, as I did find several tutorials over there. 

There are quite a few free "age me" apps, but "you get what you pay for" seems to ring pretty true here.  Instead of, or in addition to, having students draw themselves at the ripe old age of 100, you can take a head shot of each of your students, age them with the app and then print them off. 

I'm sure they'll find this loads of fun.  If you have a Smart Board, you could demonstrate the process and then have students create their own. These would look awesome on the Oldies Banner.

A simpler banner, involves reinforcement holes. Since they are pretty inexpensive, (you can buy a pack of 924 for less than $2) I liked to use them quite a bit with my Y5's.  Peeling and pressing them on something, was great fine motor skill practice. 

With that in mind, I designed the "reinforce 100" with a 100 Day's Smarter banner, as well as the 100-Day Snowman craftivity.  Click on the links to check them out. 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it!" button is on the menu bar.

"We'll start our day with a great big grin; because our 100 Day celebration, is about to begin!"

1-2-3 Come Learn About Pilgrim Children With Me!

Happy TBT (Throw Back Thursday!) Here are a few "Oldies" but "Goodies" that I think you'll enjoy.

Having taught about the first Thanksgiving and Pilgrims for years, I thought I was pretty knowledgeable.  My husband and I also visited the outstanding Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth Massachusettes, which made me appreciate the hardships these people endured even more.   If you've never been to this historical place, I highly recommend it!

I thought it would be fun to delve into the life of a child during 1620.  I felt students would find it very interesting to compare themselves with a Pilgrim child's life. 

After over 30 hours doing research, visiting countless websites and perusing 20+ books, I learned so many interesting facts, and truly enjoyed this journey of discovery.  I hope you will too.  Click on the link to view/download the Pilgrim Children Packet.

Start with the KWL to see where your kiddo's are at.  I've included one in color to do as a whole group, and another in black line for students to fill in on their own. 

Afterwards, introduce your study, by reading several non-fiction as well as fictional books.  I've included a bibliography of 25 of my all-time favorite Pilgrim books.  Later, ask your students if they think that the Pilgrim children who lived during that time period, were really different than the children of today.

I feel there is no better way to launch children into comparison and contrast, that's easy and understandable, than to use Venn diagrams.  I've included 12 different Venn diagrams in the packet, so that children can compare & contrast clothing, chores, homes, and education, as well as games and toys.

Students can work independently, with a partner, or you can do the Venn diagrams as a whole group activity. 

Personally, I'd start as a whole group and use the partially filled-in Venn diagrams, so that students can learn more interesting facts about the Pilgrim children.

Each Venn diagram has a blank template, as well as a partially filled in one. The circle for present day children can be filled in via a discussion.  Choose a different Venn diagram each day, so interest remains high and the amount of content is not overwhelming. 

After you have completed all of the Venn diagrams as a whole group, have children pick a partner, and choose a blank Venn diagram to fill in together.  This not only reinforces facts, but becomes a tool for you to assess comprehension as well.

Now that students have quite a bit of knowledge about Pilgrim children compared to the children of today, have a discussion where students process this information and come to some conclusions.  There's a writing extension for this.

I've also included 4 graphic organizers for even more writing practice + several interesting writing prompts that I think your students will enjoy. 

I made a list of the 31 children who were aboard the Mayflower and included their ages.  Your kiddo's will find some of the names rather odd, like Truelove, Humility, and Wrestling. 

Have students choose a Pilgrim child and write a letter to them.  Based on their new knowledge, they could also write a letter back written from the Pilgrim child's point of view! 

Besided writing, I wanted to toss in a bit of math.  Finding interesting measurement activities is not always easy, but the Mayflower as well as the Pilgrims' homes, provide great segways.  I've given the dimensions and converted square feet for you, so that you can chalk off the hold of the ship, where the Pilgrims were crammed for 65 long days, as well as the measurements of the Pilgrims' 1-room homes. 

When your students stand inside the chalk lines they will truly understand size and the cramped conditions these children experienced!

Finally, I know your kiddo's will enjoy learning about the games Pilgrim children played, as well as what toys they had.  You can start out by asking students if they think that the games they played were different than what some children of today play. 

They may be surprised to find out, that some of the games that the Pilgrims played are still around today, and that many common games, were derived from days of old. 

I've listed directions of how to play a dozen games, including the popular Nine Man's Morrice (pictured), which is available as an APP.  I hope your personal little Pilgrims will enjoy them. 

All of these activities can be found in the Pilgrim Children Packet click on the link to view/download it.  Now that your students are familiar with the life of a Pilgrim child, scroll down to the next article, and have your kiddos write letters to their classmates, as if they were really a youngster living during this tiime period.  

Thanks for visiting.  Now that some of my computer work is done for the day, it's time to make a big pot of vegetable beef barley soup.  The frost is indeed on the pumpkins, so it's the perfect day for a nice hot bowl of mmm mmm good!

"Be thankful for what you have and you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." -Ophra Winfrey

1-2-3 Come Measure Pumpkins With Me!

Since the Apple Investigation booklet was such an overwhelming success, I decided to make one for your pumpkin studies.  This quick and easy booklet, will help your kiddo's learn about measurement in an interesting and fun way.

Students measure height, weight, width and circumference of their pumpkin. They trace and write vocabulary-building words, predict, answer questions, + collect and analyze data.  Investigating pumpkins, will help with Common Core State Standards: K.MD.1a, K.MD.2, 1.MD.1, and 1.MD.2.

Introduce measurement, by showing students all of the measuring materials and ask them if they know the names of these objects and what they are used for. 

Discuss the value of measurement, as well as how and why people measure things. 

You can do this booklet as a whole group activity using one or two large pumpkins, have students work in groups of 2-5 sharing a pumpkin, or use miniature pumpkins, and ask for donations. 

One year I had a parent who grew the gourds that look like miniature pumpkins; they brought in an entire box full. Another year, a child's family grew pumpkins, and donated a class supply of really small ones.  Often, farm markets will give teachers a discount, if you simply ask. 

Allow a few minutes for children to really examine their pumpkin by touching it, smelling it, and then describing their pumpkin to a partner etc.  I think one of their favorite pages will be measuring a partner with a pumpkin.

To make this do-able for non or beginning readers, work on the booklet as a whole group.  Read the 1st page aloud and model what you want your students to do, then have children do that portion of their investigation with their pumpkin. 

If you are teaching PreK, you might want to do just 1 booklet as a class.  Older students can work on this independently.  Allow enough time, so children don't feel rushed, and everyone gets a turn using the scale etc. 

To expedite things, you may want to borrow several other scales from fellow teachers for that part of your day.  To keep interest, with little ones, and because of time, you can also work on just one or two pages a day.

When your pumpkin booklet is completed, read it aloud once more, and have children share their results as you read that page.

Reinforce vocabulary by reviewing the measurement tools and words, and asking students: "What is a scale? What is it used for?"  "What is height? How can you measure it?" etc.  Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Investigation booklet. Looking for more Pumpkin Activities? Click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site for lots more FREEBIES!

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away!  If you'd like to see all of the creative educational items I pin, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.  I have a board especially for pumpkin activities.

"The whole art of teaching, is the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds, for the purpose of satisfying them afterwards." -Anatole France