Pumpkins Nature Unit Study
We’re learning about Pumpkins this week - obviously! The way we always start a new unit study is to create an inviting atmosphere. We decorate our shelves or designated area with everything related to the topic. We just print off consumable pages from our Pumpkins Unit Study, it’s so easy to set up! This really gets my students excited for the learning that will be happening later on in the week. It doesn’t have to be Instagram worthy just a simple curated space for learning.
We first introduce the topic - usually it’s with selected literature, it may be a living book, poem or waldorf inspired hand rhymes. We learned the song “Five Little Pumpkins” one day, and read the poem we printed off on another day. Below is a list of books we used. All of our books were purchased from Book Depository because they provide FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!
From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
Sing a Song of Seasons by Fiona Waters
Welcome to the Museum: Botanicum by Kathy Willis
Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman
Both of my girls (just turned 8 and 5) really enjoy doing school together, when I begin the lesson read-alouds the are usually coloring. When little hands are busy they actually retain more information. Our Hand illustrated Squash + Gourds Coloring Pages go so well with the lesson and there are some really good references in terms of color in Farm Anatomy pg. 76 & 77 but really, I just let them color anyway they want! The older child is all about having the precise colors & the little one just loves having an explosion of color - both are beautiful!
As with most of my packs, there is art appreciation + poetry and copy work pages. Some activities are geared for younger learners others are for much older children - and they are completely open-ended, all you really need is some creativity. You can save the files and use them again and again with multiple aged children. In case you need some inspiration, you can follow us on Instagram @wildflowersbysarah where I post in our stories and on my feed - almost daily. Or you can keep reading here:
My 5 year old girl started Kindergarten around her birthday. She knows all her letter sounds and this year we’ll be working on digraphs, split digraphs, trigraphs and consonant blends. Really her main goal is to be able to read a book like her role model - her older sister. Last year she learned the letter formation for the letter Pp, using a sand tray and a mini chalkboard. This year she traced the letters with crayons on our Pp for Pumpkins worksheet. She has become so confident, and was eager to write more (this made me so happy) she wrote the word pumpkin using our flashcards! She even spelled the word slowly using our moveable alphabets * jaw dropped * - That’s literacy all done for the week!
Next up is math - her favourite! We have little pumpkin counters in the pack and we practiced subitizing - when you are able to look at a group of objects and realise how many there are without counting, and addition facts up to 5! I also created a FREE Pumpkins Count + Clip Card for younger children.
ART!!! The moment these white pumpkins arrived, all they wanted to do was smother them in paint. One had bright fluorescent pink polka dots and others were more true to Yayoi Kusama’s Style - We studied the artist using our Yayoi Kusama Art Unit Study and became inspired! Our art project for this week was so fun for everyone, we had to order another batch of pumpkins. Get yours here from our Amazon Store Front
Of course, there’s always the lifecycle and anatomy of pumpkins. It’s not just science, literacy is also integrated here. We have Montessori style three part cards for the lifecycle and a sequencing worksheet. We tested to see if a pumpkin would sink or float. Then dissected (and later ate) it, discussing the different parts of a pumpkin - she completed her worksheet afterwards.
My 8 year old would start by reading the poem that I have printed, and she can choose to do copy-work, dictation, or write her own poem. She wrote her own pumpkin poem, so that’s really the beauty of our unit studies - there’s so much freedom. All her work this year is going to be written in cursive, and she’s catching on well. She looked up vocabulary words that she doesn’t know in a dictionary. Then she wrote some adjectives for pumpkins.
For math, we investigated pumpkins. We measured the height, weight and circumference. Then we counted the seeds on one section to estimate how many the pumpkin had in total. Our 5 year old is eagerly learning to count to 100! So, I hope after this you will be inspired to discover your passions & create a life-long love of learning!
Next week’s Nature Study Topic is Fungi & Mushrooms until then…
