Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago I took both my morning and afternoon classes on a field trip to "Grandpa's Garden". With 18 kids in the morning and 16 in the afternoon, it was a full day. The kids each got to pick out their own pumpkin, and the next few days we used them in class to measure how many pumpkins long we were, weighed our pumpkins, and used them in our dramatic play center to sell. We had used the week before to talk about how pumpkins grew, and the different parts of the plant, so the kids were pretty excited to go.
With 4 classes going in the morning, the people running the patch came up with some different activities for the kids to do while the kids waited for their turn on the hayride around the farm (definitely the favorite part!). Here is one of the kids trying out the "balloon lunch"....a giant sling for water balloons...none of the kids got very close to the actual target....but some got closer than others =)






The hayride!!!
Here, "Grandpa" showed us a Native American carving tool that he found on his land....most likely used for scraping skins.

Having our snack....here is one of the little girls with her little sister. Some parents came with for the trip, and a few brought younger siblings along,.

Pumpkin pictures to color...one of the things they had there for kids to do.

Overall, this was a pretty tiring day, but the kids had a lot of fun, and I did too! It was nice that at the patch they talked about how the pumpkins grew, reinforcing what we had been learning that week.
As a school, West Salem does not really celebrate Halloween, so I haven't been doing a lot of Halloween stuff with my kids- but they are pretty excited about it- so we have been doing a lot with pumpkins, spiders and monsters, and the kids have been talking a lot about what they are going to be. I have to admit I am pretty disappointed that I am not in a village, and I won't get to see my kids in their Halloween costumes this year!....one disadvantage to being in a larger community.