Fall offers a lot of opportunities for hands on science experiments. It’s also a great time to build background and life experiences. Exploring and carving a pumpkin is perfect for building attending and language skills… and you can sneak in science!
These activities are wonderful for targeting:
We start by carving a classroom pumpkin together. Many of our students don’t have strong social skills or notice other people enough to have a sense of belonging to a group. We try to build that community feel as often as possible. Working together as a team to carve the classroom pumpkin is one of those ways we work on building community.
To begin, we take a vote to decide on what shapes the eyes, nose and mouth will be. Then, we draw the winners on the pumpkin. Most of my class can write, so we had them take turns drawing the shapes on the pumpkin this year. The face is a little bit off kilter, but super cute!
