Giant Pumpkin Sensory and Math Exploration

The children at Whittier Friends School opened up two GIANT pumpkins (donated by the wonderful members at First Friends Church) and discovered that the ooey, gooey insides can be loads of fun.

The TK-6th graders counted out the seeds in their pumpkin by sorting the seeds into groups of ten. 











Everyone worked together to separate the pulp from the seeds.











After sorting the seeds into groups of ten, the students combined 10 groups of 10 into a cup of 100 seeds.

Finally, we used place value to determine that our 5 cups of 100, 5 groups of 10, and 4 seeds left over came to a total of 544 seeds!

The 3rd-6th graders calculated out that each of the 16 students got to take home 34 seeds with 10 left over to use to grow new giant pumpkins next year.

Our preschoolers took another path and used their pumpkin for sensory discovery and to do a little bit of predicting.

What does the outside of the pumpkin feel like?

A: Hard!
N: It feels like play-dough.
R: It's like a car.

What does it look like?
J: Orange.
M: The pumpkin looks like a pumpkin.

What do you think will be inside the pumpkin?

D: A house.
E: Pumpkin pie.
A: All of the seeds.
M: Orange yucky strings.

What do you think it will feel like inside the pumpkin?

A: Well, it's soft.
T: It's cold and soft/
M: It's going to feel like a house, but it's going to be sticky.
R: Pop!
D: Squish.

Once we opened the pumpkin, the children were able to discover if their predictions were true.

What does it look like inside?

M: It's all droopy.
R: There's seeds in there!
C: It's looks like a turkey.
J: Orange.
D: House.
A: Seeds.
T: I saw a seed.
C: I don't see seeds on mine.
C: It looks like spaghetti.
R: There's spiders in there.

What does the pumpkin feel like inside?

A: This is juice pumpkin inside. If you squash it the juice comes out.
N: I'm wet.
T: It's slippery right here.
R: It feels sticky.
N: It's like seaweed.
A: It feels like play-dough.
N: It feels like cheese.

They even chimed in on the pumpkin aroma.

T: It smells like watermelon.
N: It smells like lucky turkey.

Now be careful with your pumpkins at home because according to our preschoolers:

"If you eat it, you'll turn into a pumpkin!"

Playground Critters

The Preschoolers enjoyed observing some creepy crawlies during outside play time the other day. Let's listen in and see what they had to say!

S (4 years old): It's like a snail! What is these?

M (5 years old): I find one of these circle slow

B (4 years old): Look at him. He can move. He's showing me what he likes. 

G (5 years old): I see slugs and roly-poly. 

T (5 years old): I see red bugs. 

G: Aren't they so cute? They both want to play with each other!

B: I see slugs and roly-polies and ants and other red things. 

T: It has a lot of legs

G: Let's count. 

T, M, G: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30!

T: He has 30 legs!

National History Day: Los Angeles

Our Intermediate Students went to the History Day LA competition last Saturday, March 14. There were hundreds of contestants from Los Angles County, all sharing their entries about the theme, "Leadership and Legacy in History." Here are some pictures of our students' work. 

Screen Shot from the website project about Steve Jobs, made by our 7th and 8th grade boys:

Our 8th grade girl portraying a Guidance Counselor arguing the impact Shakespeare has made to the world, during her competition in front of the judges:

The display poster made by our 4th and 5th grade girls about Helen Keller. Their project earned a finalist ribbon!

We are so proud of the hard work by our intermediate students. The competition culminated months of research, paying particular attention to primary sources. It was exciting for the students to go and be a part of the "academic dialogue" of this National competition. 

Awesome job, kids!

Pop! Go the Preschoolers

Sometimes the best times are the simplest times! 

Here are some friends enjoying the popping of bubble wrap.

Getting Down and Dirty WFS Style!

     School parent, Louie Horbino, invited us to tour his machinery repair company and a near by parts manufacturer. The students also visited the scrap yard to obtain parts for their Odyssey of the Mind project and learned how to weld!

Symmetrical Butterflies

The WFS kids engaged in a very fun lesson on symmetry! The elementary made half of a butterfly and the preschoolers used additional pieces to create the other half. Go Teamwork!

Let's Get Artsy!

The elementary students created the following designs, which were photographed and given to the preschool students to recreate. The art lesson on patterning in multiple dimensions transformed into a visual discrimination activity for the preschoolers.