It's Pumpkin Time!

It's my favorite time of year around here! We made pumpkin playdough and used little twigs and evergreen to decorate our little balls of fun. You can find the recipe here from an earlier post. We added orange food coloring, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

I found a good lesson plan on pumpkin life cycles over at Montessori Mom that went along nicely with our book.

 We read The Pumpkin Book, an educational story about the life cycle and origins of pumpkins, by Gail Gibbons.  You can also find a fun paper plate life cycle activity at My Montessori Journey.

It's also nice when you can find a garden or pumpkin patch where the pumpkins are still attached to the vine to get the full effect of the cycle.
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Reposted from 2010

Everything Apples

An apple mosaic with a paper plate.

Apple peeling and coring, making applesauce to eat.

Apple pie playdough with my favorite recipe here.
Perfect Playdough
1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
Food coloring of your choice
Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

Stir ingredients together into a saucepan. Over medium heat cook the dough until it pulls away from the pan. Lay onto a cutting board and knead well, it will be hot to touch. Allow to cool and enjoy.

We also plan to finish our life cycle of an apple tree from My Montessori Journey.

The Butterflies Are Here!

The Monarch butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis and they are using their proboscis to drink the sugar water we left for them. The girls like to reach into the butterfly house and feel the butterfly wings flutter on their hand.

Every year we go through the same thing.....Olive gets so sad when it's time to release them into Grammy's garden. "It's almost time for their wings to fly," I tell her. "I know," she replies.

The life cycle of a Monarch butterfly is an amazing thing to see.

The Pupa stage....almost ladybugs

Our ladybug eggs have made it through the larvae stage and not it's onto the pupa stage. They look like tiny yellow shrimp and will soon metamorphosis into a ladybug. 

This is a great site for learning about ladybugs, here.
Interesting Facts:

• Because Ladybugs eat lots of aphids and other pest insects, many gardeners and farmers use them for pest control instead of chemicals.
• A Ladybug can lay up to 1000 eggs in its lifetime.
• Not all Ladybugs have spots.
• Ladybugs will clean themselves after a meal.
• Ladybugs come in many colors like pink, yellow, white, orange and black.
• Over 300 types of Ladybugs live in North America.
• Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes bad so predators won’t eat them. 
• Ladybugs hibernate in large groups in cold weather.
• Many countries consider a ladybug to be a sign of good luck.
• Ladybugs are actually beetles, so sometimes are called LadyBeetles.
• The bright colors of Ladybugs warn birds that they don’t taste good.
• The spots on a Ladybug fade as they get older.