Pumpkins

Organizing my unit

With every unit I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants a little less. Here I have organized every school day by stack to make sure that every day includes some kind of work sheet covering math, letters and writing.

Don't mind the garbage bag in the picture - it's one of our classic parenting strategies to get our kids to clean their play room ["Clean up this mess or it's all being donated!"] Stay tuned for more *fantastic* parenting tips.

Just some fun sheets I found on Etsy to give our classroom a little more festive feel!

So much spooky art this week!

We enjoyed so many different art projects!

First, we looked at a renaissance painting of a pumpkin, as well as a clipart image of a pumpkin, and tried to recreate it on our art easel.

Second, we made SPOOKY eyeball trees! Nothing says Halloween more than a spooky tree, right?!

Last, we made adorable ghosts using a sponge painter!

Another important tip - even though he's learning at home and there is no confusing his art with someone else's, this is always the perfect opportunity to have Conall write his name on his works of art!

Make sure to have several spots to hang artwork - I've used the wire hangers from Ikea as well as plain old curtain rods and hooks!

"We're learning...with candy?!"

This was the exact question Conall asked me when he wanted to triple check that he heard me correctly! Candy corn was a fun way to practice making shapes and patterns, and using them for place holders was extra sweet!

One hundred uses for clothes pins

So these are actually mini clothespins that I got in the Target dollar section last fall (their back-to-school dollar section is always amazing), but you can use any clothespins. Having to squeeze the pin to open it really helps to strengthen their pincer grasp which prepares them for more writing - and for some reason Conall doesn't think he's completing an assignment if he's using clothespins. Laundry accessories for the win!

You can find all sorts of fall-themed items for way cheap at Hobby Lobby

Halloween sensory bin

So this wasn't my greatest sensory bin ever made, but we had so many other fun things to do during our pumpkin unit so I wasn't too worried. Pretty easy setup: dry beans + different halloween goodies (I got these as trick-or-treat bag stuffers from the holiday section at Target).

Pumpkin guts

A pumpkin unit would not be complete with some real life pumpkin fun. For our house, that means pumpkin painting, pumpkin carving, and playing with lots and lots of "pumpkin guts".