We have had a wonderful week studying about pumpkins. Today, we did several math and science experiments using our pumpkins.

First, we graphed what kind of face we wanted our large pumpkin to have. The kids chose from cute, scary, happy, or mad. The "scary" face won by a landslide! So, I drew the scary face on the pumpkin. I didn't want to cut the pumpkin around the kids and risk injuries.

Next, we used a mixture of shaving cream, glue and orange paint to make "puffy" pumpkins. Our 4th grade buddies came to help us with this project. We made 5 pumpkins sitting on a fence to go with the poem we learned today.

After that project, we tried to figure out if pumpkins would float or sink. We didn't have anything big enough to try the large pumpkin, so we tried the small pumpkins. The kids were convinced the pumpkins would sink. Boy, were they surprised when they floated. The homework for the kids is to try to find out if a large pumpkin will sink or float.

After the sink/float experiment, we guestimated the circumference of our large pumpkin. The kids cut off a piece of yarn that they thought would wrap around the pumpkin. They learned that this is hard to do. 3 students got the string "just right", the rest was either "too long", or "too short." This helps to understand measuring.

We had a lot of fun with our pumpkins this week. Ask your child what they know about these big orange squash. They may surprise you!

Opportunities on the computer

For online learning games, you can find wonderful links on the Bitterroot Elementary webpage. To get there, go to www.billingsschools.org. Once there, go to schools, find Bitterroot on the list. Once you click on Bitterroot, you will go to the district page for the school. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on school website. This will take you to the Bitterroot website. There you find lists of things to click on, plus a gorgeous picture of a Bobcat. Anyway, scroll down the left side of the screen and click on learning links. This will bring you to marvelous computer activities that you can do at home with your child. Enjoy!

New communications

Dear Parents,

Thanks to my wonderful teaching partners, I can now blog with you. I will post tid-bits about what we do during the day and you can read about our day. If you would like to post a comment or blog, feel free. You can even blog with other parents on this site. I encourage you to get to know other parents and to check in to see what we do. I will do my best to update the site each day, but if I forget, please remind me.

I can't wait to see what kind of fun we will have with the blog!

Mrs. McCrohan