The kindergarten children went with their teachers on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch, a small locally owned farm, whose owner allowed groups to come in and choose the pumpkins they wanted.
When they returned to school the teacher presented a lesson about pumpkins.
The next activity was the making of a pumpkin pie. (Usually Mrs. Rich, the teacher simplified the process by using canned pumpkin in the pie.) She had several centers so that each child had a part. One group stirred the pumpkin, others cracked and added the eggs, added evaporated milk, brown sugar, white sugar, spices, and salt.
She used a ready-to-bake crust. For lack of an oven, she baked the pie at home.
The next day they had a math lesson about division as they cut the pie, and then everyone had a small piece to eat.
There are three elements to the bulletin board; a picture of the child and his/her pumpkin, a story in which each child related to the teacher how to make a pumpkin pie, and an art project of a piece of pie. For this project the children designed pieces of pumpkin pie. Each was given a triangle of construction paper and he/she tore orange and brown paper pieces and glued it on the triangle. There was a foam "crust" edge.
This bulletin board was used as a cooking bulletin board throughout the year. In addition to the pumpkin pies, they had a cooking unit about The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, and The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza.
At the end of the year, the pictures and stories went into the child's keepsake memory book.
Next