Giant Pumpkin

Last week, we had our very own Klipfel & Kids and the Giant Pumpkin moment. Thank you to Mrs. Lancaster for bringing her father-in-law, Woody Lancaster (who is the former Topsfield Fair Largest Pumpkin Winner) and his giant pumpkin to Fuller Meadow.

Every year, Mr. Lancaster attempts to grow the heaviest pumpkin and enters it in the Topsfield Fair. This year his pumpkin weighed in at 1954 pounds! Most of us were surprised to observe that it looks, smells, and feels much different than a regular pumpkin.

Mr. Lancaster shared his wealth of knowledge about growing such a large pumpkin. Let us tell you it is no easy feat. Surprisingly, giant pumpkin seeds are only double the size of typical pumpkin seeds but it takes lots of planning when finding the right ones to plant. Mr. Lancaster tends to his pumpkins for 4 hours everyday and watches them grow 30 to 40 pounds a day. Each pumpkin needs about 50 gallons of water a day, heated soil and lots of love. Here are the pictures of how his pumpkin plants grow, right in his backyard.

Don't try and turn this huge pumpkin into pumpkin pies. These giant pumpkins and seeds don't taste very good because they are mostly water and not sugar. However, they do make wonderful Jack-O-Lanterns!

The last two years, I was fortunate to help Mr. Lancaster and Mrs. Lancaster carve his giant pumpkins. The pumpkins are so big, I fit completely inside! We're looking forward to carving this year's Jack-O-Lantern face soon.

Global Read Aloud Part 2

Global Read Aloud is in full swing in Room 116!  Our first stop was with Mrs. Corliss' third graders and Mrs. Klipfel (yes, she is my lovely and talented mother) 9 miles down the road in Topsfield. We got to know each other by sharing a little about our classes and towns. Topsfield students shared about the Topsfield Fair and we shared Richardson's Dairy facts. It was very impressive to hear these first and third graders discuss their favorite book characters and favorite parts of their shared story.

Throughout all our reading of The Year of Billy Miller we have focused on different comprehension strategies and genre details.  We ventured next door to join Mrs. Higgins' class for a few chapters.  1st graders used their knowledge of the story to make prediction about the story.  As we read we are checking to see if these prediction come true or not.

Mrs. Thomson's class came to visit later in the week and together we worked on determining different parts of the story that make it realistic fiction. 

We ended the week by skyping with our friends 1,807 miles away in Texas.  We shared our week of learning with them and then hung everything up on our GRA bulletin board.  

Does anyone spy the story Grandpa & Bo.  It's another realistic fiction story by Kevin Henkes.  Thanks to Mrs. Thomson for letting us borrow it.

Next time your in 1st grade stop by to check out all our hard work!  If you didn't read about our previous GRA work check it out here. 

Pumpkins!

A huge thank you to Mrs. Rullo for her very generous donation of pumpkins for the whole classroom! We decided to make the most of this bountiful harvest and complete different learning activities with our pumpkins. 

First, we turned into scientists to observe our pumpkins.  We used all of our senses - we smelled the pumpkins, felt the pumpkins, and looked at the pumpkins' color, shape, texture, lines, etc. We looked very closely using our magnifying glasses as scientific tools!

Next, we decorated our orange friends and soon we'll use them for some fun fall writing!