It has been turkey and pumpkin time this past month here in our first grade classroom. We started with a quick study of pumpkins- asking "Does a pumpkin have parts?" Before cutting into each pumpkin, we made a few guesses as to how many seeds were inside. Once we discovered that there were so many seeds, we discussed how best to count them and it was
decided it would be best to count by tens! Working in groups of 4 we quickly made some very slimy piles of 10. Half of our class had never seen the inside of a pumpkin and more than half never knew there were well over 500 seeds in these little pumpkins. Whew! Those are some big numbers to count, but most came away with the concept that working as a team makes the task that much easier! It also helped with the concept of grouping numbers into "friendly piles" or friendly numbers so they are easier to count/ add ! 
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| After making their "historical" turkeys telling of times long ago, students came up with some questions they had about turkeys! Our timeline turkeys have wings that illustrate how native Americans got their food long ago and how we get our food today! After making these turkeys, students wanted to investigate facts about turkeys- so we read aloud "All About Turkeys" and then wrote some of the facts we remembered!  |
