I'm a Little Pumpkin

Before we did anything today, we had community circle time, where I asked all the students to share with the class what they did on the weekend. I passed the rainstick to the person who's sharing, and reminded the rest of them that they had to listen to the person holding the rainstick. I found that they're more attentive when they know that they have to do the same thing, because they're anticipating it~

This week's theme is pumpkin! I introduced today's lesson by asking the students what letter does the word pumpkin start with, and most of them got it -- P!! Then we started a discussion on what pumpkins need to grow -- soil, water and sunlight. We talked about pumpkins as food, giving us vitamin A and potassium, and some food that we can make out of pumpkins -- pumpkin pie, cakes, soup, etc. Then we sang this song with movements, and they loved it~

I'm a Little Pumpkin

I'm a little pumpkin
Orange and round.
Here is my stem,
There is the ground.

When I get all cut up,
Don't you shout!
Just open me up,
And scoop me out!

After that, I divided them into groups of 3 and 4, and then gave each group a set of 5 pumpkins, which they had to order from the smallest to largest. They seemed to be confused by the concept of a group of people sharing the same set of pumpkins, and also the concept of smallest to biggest. So I guided them by asking them to show me the smallest one, and then compared all the other ones to line them up. They had no problems with comparing two at a time, so I believe that the skill of ordering by size will develop soon by practicing.



After this group activity, I asked each of the kids to tell me who was nice to them today, and to say thank you to that person. To my surprise, they started hugging each other! It was an amazing feeling, because I felt that they're really beginning to appreciate each other, and beginning to understand what giving out "warm fuzzies" mean. I'm very proud of them. =) I'm under no illusion that they'll always be caring and loving to each other from this moment on, I know that arguments and conflicts will arise by just the tiniest incident, but the awareness of something called appreciation is a good start for these 3-to-4-year-olds!

The art that we did today is using construction papers to make a pumpkin, with the letter P in the middle of the pumpkin. I let two students share a glue, and was pleasantly surprised that nobody complained about grabbing! It was a great lesson today! In the end, I put a "warm fuzzy" in each of the kids' warm fuzzy bag. Today's warm fuzzy is an origami heart that I made. =)

Reya's pumpkin:


Jonah's pumpkin:


Cooper's pumpkin: