PuMpKiN pAtCh

And other pumpkin-y type things...

(a lapbook, and muffin tin meal too!)

Last week Aaron's class at preschool went on their first field trip to the pumpkin patch!  I have to say that it was a great field trip, but we are definitely going to need to go back.  It's been a lot of years since we've gone with a preschool class so we are used to doing a whole lot more in one trip to a pumpkin patch, like all the corn and hay mazes, playing in the corn and acorn pits, etc.  They didn't do nearly as much as we hoped to do.  It was still pretty fun though.  The weather was absolutely perfect too.

Aaron was so excited for this field trip.  He almost didn't want me to come along, but I insisted that I was coming because I wanted to.  And, that I was also bringing April because it was her early release day and it worked out perfect for her to be picked up from school and join us at the pumpkin patch.

Here he is with some of his friends after they did the easy kids hay maze (the only one the class got to do).  Look at that smile!

Here's Aric, he enjoyed the pumpkin patch too, but he wasn't quite himself.  Turns out after we got back home he had a stomach ache, and was throwing up the rest of the evening.  I think it was something he ate at lunch.  That's why his cheeks look so red.

This is the whole class, plus April and Aric.

Then we went over and watched the cider press, that's always a cool thing to watch.  Here they are getting a taste of the delicious cider.  That stuff is sooooo good.

Finally, the hay ride to the pumpkins.  Aric LOVED watching the tractor, but see he's not nearly as excited as I'd expected him to be.  Poor guy just wasn't feeling good.

Then, when we arrived at the pumpkin patch we were to each put 3 things in our bags:  a pumpkin, a gourd and an indian corn.  Unfortunately so many of the pumpkins were already rotting, it was hard to find good ones.

Ready for the tractor ride back!

The last thing they got to do was feed the goats and see the other animals.  They each got a handful of food and here's Aaron feeding a goat!

As part of his trip to the pumpkin patch, I made Aaron this lap book all about pumpkins with different activities in it.  It has the pumpkin life cycle, a pumpkin patch abc, a jack-o-lantern mini book from Enchanted learning, a dot-to-dot, pumpkin patterns, other little extras.  Most of these things I found the links to at 1+1+1=1, and you can find those here.  He really enjoyed doing this.

He loved the pumpkin life cycle flaps, but even more he loved adding the missing pumpkins to the alphabet pumpkin patch.  This really surprised me.

The picture is of him at the pumpkin patch a few years ago.

This is the pumpkin patch abc part that he worked so hard on.  I am amazed that he liked this so much, that he even cut each of the little pumpkins letters out himself AND he worked on it all the way until he was done.

This is the tracing page.  He didn't quite get the tracing, but he had fun counting and coloring the 5 pumpkins.

I think it was the day before we did a pumpkin Muffin Tin Meal.  I don't do these very often because of time, but it always amazes me how excited the kids get every time they know I'm making one.  

Top row:  pumpkin hamburger, orange balloon (to play with afterwards), and pumpkin mix (pretzels, candy corn, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips)

Bottom row:  peaches with a green spoon (to look like a pumpkin), cheese and pickle pumpkin, and a cookie pumpkin.

This meal has way more sweet things than I'd like it to have, but it was all I could come up with.  Oh, and it's in the pumpkin muffin tins that I had.  The boys liked finding the pumpkin faces in the bottom after eating each thing.

After they were through eating we turned on "Dem bones" song and they danced with their balloons.