Pumpkin Party!

More pumpkins! All week we have been learning about these things and yet I still have this strange obsession with pumpkins...and so I'm going to keep up the pumpkin theme next week, too! After all, we haven't even tried pumpkin seeds yet! So here's some of the things we've been up to all week:

During our shared reading, we were learning about the pumpkin life cycle. The kiddies really enjoyed talking about how a pumpkin seed becomes a big, round pumpkin so I jumped at the opportunity to complete a sequencing activity that reiterates writing our numerals and also requires some good ol' fine motor: 

(click the picture above for a copy of the sequencing cards)

 During math, I cut a hole in the top of our class pumpkin so the kids could first estimate and then count how many seeds were in the pumpkin. In Number Sense and Numeration we are working on counting by 10s so this was a perfect activity for that:

 Some kidlets estimated 6 seeds and some estimated 10000! In the end, our pumpkin had 258 seeds.

Next came math centres. Our first math centre was pumpkin number order. The kids had to write the missing numbers. Anytime they get to use whiteboard markers they are ALL.ABOUT IT.

Click HERE for your FREE copy of this activity (I coloured the pumpkins in and laminated them)

Next centre was number matching. First they just match up the numeral and dot puzzles and then they could play it as a memory game:

Grab a FREE copy of this activity HERE.  

At calendar time we have been working on saying the date using ordinal numbers (i.e. first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.) so this next centre focused on practice identifying and matching ordinal numbers with their corresponding numeral. I even took it one more level for my smarty-pants and had them write the number word as extra practice. 

You can download the FREE pumpkin cards HERE (if you go to atozteacherstuff.com you can grab the pumpkin cards from 11 to 20) and my FREE WORKSHEET HERE.

 Last but not least was a Halloween-y dice game. I LOVE dice games for one-to-one correspondence practice. All the kids had to do here was take turns rolling the die and moving their piece along the monsters. First one to get to the candy wins. SO SIMPLE but they loved it, which means I loved it, too! (I can't remember where I got this one from. Let me know if it was you so I can give you credit!)

Grab it HERE 

 If it isn't already obvious I am *all about* centres!!! Whether it's math, literacy, science, whatever, I think centres are SO important for practicing key skills taught in whole and small group. Grade one is SUCH a developmental year and centres are a great way to consistently practice those keys skills along with accountability, independence, problem solving, social interactions, and about a zillion other things.

Okay, I will stop blabbering on now. Have a fantastic week everyone!!!