It's here! It's here! Finally, our field trip to the pumpkin patch has arrived! A hallmark of the first grade year is the October outing to the pumpkin patch. The day couldn't be more beautiful; blue sky with just a hint of puffy clouds, cold enough for hand warmers but not cold enough to wish you weren't there. And DRY!!! A beautiful thing on a fall day in the Pacific Northwest. We boarded the school bus for a 20 minute drive into the country to a farm that transforms itself into a celebration of fall designed to excite and educate young children. The pumpkins are already off the vine and child sized for easy picking. First to the hen house to feed the hens and learn about the rooster. Then meet the goats, run through the hay maze, and use the water pump for plastic pumpkin races (a new addition this year). Eight parents come to help facilitate the fun (God bless the volunteers!). Then its off to the tractor-pulled hayride to the pumpkin patch. A pumpkin carefully placed for each child to pick and take home. Then a treat! The hayride continues for a mile winding through the woods on the north side of the farm. A farm house, a couple of cows, and a mile filled with fields flutter past as we chug along behind the John Deere. Then the surprise that somehow never finds its way to the ears of the 6 year olds of this community: the pumpkin people! The purveyors of this farm create small vignettes throughout the woods and fields with familiar characters dressed with a pumpkin for it's head. Just plain silly! This year we see Superman, Elvis, Cinderella, a church-going family, Rapuntzel, road construction workers and many more. The first graders squeal with delight as we ride past each setting. Gracelyn makes up a song that she sings over and over:
"Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin round.
I see a pumpkin on the ground."
It sounds so simple but it's not. She's developing her oral language which is the precursor to reading language and then written language. She used her phonemic awareness skills to create rhyme and rhythm, and connected it to our classroom learning. Literacy on the farm! It doesn't get any better than this. I am so happy to be right here, right now!
These photographs are so beautiful, Debbie, and so inspiring! I love this! No one does this here, and it is something I have MISSED.
ReplyDeleteI teach English to Elias and his native South African friend, who the principal has agreed to dispense from English 101 in light of their native skills. We are much farther ahead than Swiss children, for obvious reasons. But one of the things my instinct told me to do was to have them read Shel Silverstein aloud. The music and rhythm of his lyrics have really helped the boys with their pronunciation! And they love his hilarious and meaningful take on life. The "Pumpkin pumpkin" poem made me think of this, and what an encouragement that is to me! I'm no teacher, but here I am doing something right!
A GREAT post. I really wish my kids could have come along with you.