This morning I tried something I have read about for several years but never tried with a group of two/three year olds. We did our first directed drawing project. Once our discussion and investigation were over we talked about the shape of our pumpkin, its color, and the lines we could feel that made the ribs of the pumpkin. I demonstrated by drawing a circle on my paper with a sharpie. I drew a rectangle stem on top of my circle. Then I painted the circle orange and the stem green with water color paints. Once everyone understood, I handed over the materials and let the children create their own pumpkin. They did an amazing job! I just love how unique each pumpkin painting is and how much they look like a pumpkin.
We followed up our paintings with pumpkin carving. We made predictions about what the inside of the pumpkin would look like.
Some predictions included...
"It looks like pumpkin pie inside!"
"It has juice inside."
"It is orange inside."
We cut into the pumpkin and were amazed at how many seeds we found, how gooey it was, and most thought it smelled awful. We engaged our senses.