What will you find inside a pumpkin? What will it smell like? Feel like? taste like? Today we had fun carving pumpkins and collecting pumpkin seeds! Over the course of this week we will be making various predictions as to what will happen to our Jack o’lanterns as time passes. What will happen to the pumpkins outside? Inside? What if we put one in a shady spot? In a sunny spot? Our scientific observers are at it again, asking great questions to help guide our learning! We will also be roasting all of those wonderful seeds we harvested from our pumpkins!

As part of our ongoing science study of trees, we revisited our original tree observations from one month ago. Before heading outside we made a variety of predictions and discussed what we thought we might see and why. Upon seeing our tree in the courtyard, we were surprised to find that not only were the leaves no longer green, they had all blown off! The ground was littered with a variety of brown and yellow leaves for us to observe with a scientific eye! Upon further observation, we also noticed great details, such as a birds nest, and buds on the branches. We will revisit this tree many times over the course of the school year!

We had a wonderful time on our field trip to Cold Spring Orchard! A big Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to help out and to those selected to attended this field trip! The children had a great time picking apples, hunting for “mice,” and learning about how the farm operates from our tour guide. We sampled a variety of apples within the classroom, then used the remaining apples to make applesauce right in our classroom! We then enjoyed this delicious treat with a cup of apple cider from Cold Spring Orchard.