Teacher Tuesday: that time of the semester

Conferences, conferences, did I mention conferences? 

That seems to be the hustle and the bustle around school the last week. 

Last week it was getting paperwork together and filling out report cards. 

This week it is the actual conferences, thus extra busy and long, long days. 

I am looking forward to seeing how they go and learning from the experience, but I am not looking forward to talking to so many parents and the long day on Thursday. 

This week in writing we are working hard on writing a "How to Carve a Pumpkin" book. However, while introducing the topic and talking about pumpkins, learning about pumpkins, etc on Monday, I quickly learned that many of these children had not been exposed to an actual pumpkin, let alone carving one. 

So... I had a bright idea... and today we carved one as a class! 

They voted and named it...

Alexis the Pumpkin!

(that happens to be the name of a boy in the class)

Meet Alexis!
He had a bit of clean up done after the picture was taken... but you get the point :) 

And so we have it. The children were able to learn 1st hand how to carve a pumpkin, what is inside a pumpkin (and they had a thrill being able to help pull out the "gooey stuff and seeds"), and now they will be experts when it comes to getting the book done over the next couple of days! 

They also had the chance to try pumpkin pie, many for the 1st time today. 

Then we did a graph... yes versus no on liking the pumpkin pie. 

Let's just say... it's been a pumpkin filled week! :) 

I'll try to post pictures of the some of the activities on next Tuesday's Teacher Tuesday post! :)