Our Surprise Pumpkin

Last year, as part of our science curriculum, we left a pumpkin to rot in our whiskey barrel garden.  We watched for weeks as it got softer, moldier, and darker. Eventually, it went away completely except for a moldy little stem, not unlike the witch's hat left behind in The Wizard of Oz.  However, unlike the wicked witch, our rotting pumpkin left behind something magical. Can you guess what that was?

A fertile seed, which sprouted this year.  Nobody knew what was growing there, but over time we were certain it was a squash of some sort.  It took a while before we even saw the fruit, as most of the flowers were snipped off at the stem by our local animal population.  Birds and squirrels make our garden part of their regular morning route.

But one day, we saw something green and round...and now we have a big orange pumpkin! It wasn't until Guada pointed out that the seed came from our rotten pumpkin last year that we even made the connection.  We got to watch the full cycle of reproduction in the most natural, seasonal form, right in our garden.  Just one of many lessons inherent in our finely tuned relationship with mother nature.

Pumpkin Pie Paint

The kids loved painting with pumpkin pie paint. It was basically orange, yellow, and brown tempera paint with a mixture of pumpkin pie spice mixed in (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger). We smelled each spice as we added it to the paint and the room was filled with a beautiful fall-inspired aroma.

As a side note, I used a hair dryer to dry these faster and to diffuse the smell, and it worked for both purposes.  We got to hang them up immediately.

Coffee Filter Fall Leaves

Materials:

Coffee filters, cut into leaf shapes

Sharpies (fall colors and black and brown)

Washable markers (fall leaf colors)

Spray bottle with water

Method:

Examine leaves with children. Notice colors, veins, patterns.

Draw leaf veins with sharpies onto coffee filter leaves.

Color leaf with washable markers (as much or as little as desired)

Spray one or two times with water bottle.

Watch colors diffuse!

My adult version of this activity:

The real artists work on their coffee filter leaves:

Here are the leaves on our classroom tree:

Okay, so the veins of the leaves aren't so realistic, but we learned and we created and the outcome is gorgeous!

Leaf Man

Today's Bean Patch time was all about representation.

First, we read this great book from the library:

One of the children pointed out that it feels like a sad book, and in a way it can be. It's about the Leaf Man, who blows away with the wind and goes where the wind blows.  It takes the reader through a journey whose destination is unknown.  It has beautiful pictures of leaf collages that represent different animals, sceneries, and the leaf man.

Last week, we went on a leaf hunt and pressed our findings in a phone book. We had beautifully pressed leaves to work with for this activity.  We placed the leaves on a canvas, but our art was as transient as the Leaf Man and we deconstructed the art after photographing it.

"Aiken Drum" by Bl 

"A Flower" by Za 

"Aken Drum" by Sahil 

"A Tree with a Seed of Love (To Help It Grow)" by Ta 

"A Tree with Lightening" by Be 

"A Monster" by Br

Ha made Abiyoyo and I can't believe we forgot to photograph it! And Gi got through the planning phase on what he wanted to make (Aiken Drum), but didn't quite get to the "making" phase.  That's okay, though, because this activity was all about the process of thinking, planning, representing on paper, and translating it to art.  This symbolic reasoning is all about pre-literacy but most importantly, it gave is a chance to work in small groups to connect and be noticed.  And for the younger children,  the latter is all that this activity was about.