K7: Pumpkins

KINDERGARTEN LESSON PLAN                                                         Week of October 7

Pumpkins!!!

ANNUAL TEKS:     K19(a)  Students ask questions about topics of class-wide interest  (with adult assistance)

                                      K19(b)  Students decide which sources/people can answer questions (with adult assistance)

                      K20(a)  Students gather evidence from provided text sources (with adult assistance)

                           

2^nd 6-Week Pacing     Pair Fiction & Non-Fiction          Cyber Safety                           Book Selection Techniques        

Build on:  Story Elements/Rhymes/Predictions/Read Assorted Literature/Procedures/ Print Awareness/Book Care  

Intent: Reinforce K curriculum of learning about the plant life cycle through pumpkins.  And have fun doing it.

INTRODUCTION

1. Welcome Song:  (Sung to “If you’re happy and you know it”)

If you’re ready for a story take a seat.   
If you’re ready for a story take a seat. 

Clap your hands and stomp your feet, 
Now make your hands all nice and neat. 

If you’re ready for a story take a seat.

2. Finger Play:  Wiggle Fingers

Wiggle Fingers, Wiggle So.  Wiggle High, Wiggle Low. 

Wiggle Left, Wiggle Right, Wiggle Fingers, OUT OF SIGHT!

3. Set Library Behavioral Expectations: (reinforce / commend examples )

Graphic CHAMPS reminder https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B3dpaiUKs9aAMHVaT2otdC1Kb1U

4. Mystery Bag
1.  (while passing around) What’s in today’s mystery bag?  Wow, whatever it is, it must be small because it doesn’t feel like anything is in here!  Who can guess what’s in the bag?  Why do you guess that?  (Reveal PUMPKIN SEEDS, listen for students who recognize they’re a seed.) These seeds will grow into the subject of this week’s story time: pumpkins.

4.  Word of the Week:  (Forms a cornerstone of the lesson, aids in understanding and connecting text themes)

English: Pumpkin

Spanish: Calabaza  (kal-a-BA-za)

ASL (American Sign Language.)  http://www.handspeak.com/word/index.php?dict=pu  

Sign language is a real language where people use their hands to communicate.  Here is the sign for pumpkin.  Hold your left hand out like you were touching the top of a pumpkin, nice and round.  Now take your right hand and flick your middle finger on the top of the other hand, like you were trying to thump the pumpkin to tell if it’s ready to pick.  Flick two times.  That’s pumpkin!

6. Pre-Reading   In your kindergarten class this week, you’re starting to study apples and pumpkins.  We talk about both these plants in the fall because they are fall foods: if you grew them in your garden here in Texas, they would grow all summer and be ready to eat in the fall.  Today we’re going to learn about how a pumpkin grows in story time, reading books that are stories and another kind of book filled with facts.  Then, we’ll play a computer game that makes us sort pumpkins.  Finally, we’ll check out books and it will be time to go back to class.

Story/Resource #1: (Patty’s Pumpkin Patch by Terri Sloat, © 1999 G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

1. Pre-reading :  Has anyone ever eaten a pumpkin pie, or pumpkin pancakes?  When pumpkins grow in a garden, we call it a pumpkin patch.  Has anyone been to a pumpkin patch?  What did you see there besides pumpkins?  (Note alliteration of title, spot different animals on the front and back cover.)
2. READ STORY  
3. Reflection:  Read author info on back of dust jacket: does Terri Sloat know about pumpkins? (Yes, she lives down the road from a pumpkin patch and she raised them as a child.)  Now let’s think about the book.  How long did it take to grow the pumpkins?  What did Patty have to do to take care of them?  What did the kids who bought the pumpkins do with them?
4. Poem:   Pumpkin Seeds (author unknown)

 One day I found two pumpkin seeds

I planted one and pulled the weeds.

It sprouted roots and a big long vine

A pumpkin grew; I called it mine

The pumpkin was quite round and fat

I really am quite proud of that.

But there is something I'll admit

That has me worried just a bit.

I ate the other seed, you see

Now will it grow inside of me?

I'm so relieved since I have found

That pumpkins only grow in the ground!

5.       Action Rhyme:   Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;                            Hold up 5 fingers, bend down 1 at a time.
The first one said, "My, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "It's Halloween fun."
"Wooooooo" went the wind,                                     Swoosh hand through the air.
And out went the lights.                                             * Clap*
These five little pumpkins ran out of sight.                   Hands behind back.

6.        Jokes:           Q: What do you use to mend a jack-o-lantern? A: A pumpkin patch.        

Q:  What did the jack-o-lantern say to the pumpkin?  A.  Cut it out!
source: http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/foodjokes/pumpkinjokes.html

TONGUE TWISTER: Patty painted pretty pumpkin pictures.

Story/Resource #2:  Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson © Tricycle Press 1999

1.  Pre-reading:  Now we switch to a different kind of book – one that is about facts, not a made up story.
2. READ
3. Reflection: sequence activity –kids use info learned in book to sequence.  Go back to the book and picture-walk to find correct sequence.

4.      Song:  (Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground (Crouch down)
How’d you get so big and round? (Stretch arms out wide and then make circle)
Once you were a seed so small (Pretend to hold a seed)
Now you are a great big ball! (Make huge circle with arms)
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground (Crouch down)
How’d you get so big and round? (Stretch arms out wide and then make circle)

5.        Computer Game:  Pumpkin Sorter.  Kids practice mouse skills and sorting criteria.

http://www.meddybemps.com/halloween/pumpkin03.html

Alternate activity: Video of rotting pumpkin!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyvN59L4hJU

Check out books

Conclusion

1. Circle:  Today we learned about the pumpkin life cycle.  They may start from tiny seeds, but pumpkins get BIG!  Who is going to carve a pumpkin at home this year?  Who wants to eat pumpkin pie?
2. Closing Song :  Open, shut them, Open, shut them.  Raise your hands up high. Open, shut them.  Open, shut them.  Wave and say goodbye.
3. Line Up By…  paperback/hardback books
4. High Five the Word of the Week on the door on the way out.