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getting domestic (it's for the kids).

This week was a short week (HALLELUJAH) because we have fall break today and tomorrow! (Thus the sudden bombardment of blog updates.)

SO I decided to make it a fun(ish) sort of week where we mostly did science centered around, wait for it.....PUMPKINS.

We've already talked a lot about making observations (come and ask any of my students what "observe" means...they'll tell you AND show you, it makes me so proud), so we reviewed that.... "When we observe we carefully hear, taste, touch, smell, or look at something." 
And then I showed them this:
And I told a little bit of a "story." (Based in reality...with some made-up details to make it more exciting.)
I told them that I had something VERY special to share with them. My dad grows PUMPKINS! This is a picture of me with my dad's biggest pumpkin when I was in Minnesota! And every year we have a big competition (where people try to win something) to see who has the biggest pumpkin. My dad's pumpkin was TWO HUNDRED POUNDS (197...let's not get caught in the little things). DO YOU THINK HE WON? (WOOWWW!! YESS!!!!!...if you could have seen the excitement).
WELL, he didn't. Can you believe that? The biggest pumpkin was WAY bigger than that! Anyways, I wanted to bring the big pumpkin back to Mississippi to share with you all, but it wouldn't fit in the airplane. SO, instead, my dad let me bring you some little pumpkins (spoiler: I bought the pumpkins at Walmart...but saying they come from Ms. Forster's dad is SO MUCH MORE EXCITING). We are going to get to have some fun with these pumpkins, but first, my dad said if we're going to have fun with pumpkins, we need to learn about them. (transition to worksheet labeling the parts of a pumpkin....VERY important because Ms.Forster's dad said so.)

Once we had learned about the parts of the pumpkin, we made observations of the REAL pumpkin (using our eyes and also touch). We drew observations, talked about what we were observing (how does it feel? what color is it?). Then, I cut open the pumpkin and let the students observe the guts. They each got a plate with some seeds and they got to feel them, smell them, etc. We drew and wrote more observations. 

So if observe means to "carefully hear, taste, touch, smell, or look at something" then, of course we've already smelled, touched and looked...so next we need to TASTE!

Which means I'm spending my day off scooping pumpkins and roasting the seeds to bring for a treat when we get back to school on Monday. 
#domestic
#YUMTHEYMIGHTNOTMAKEITTILMONDAY

Here's what I did:

1. Scoop all of the guts out of the pumpkins with a heavy metal spoon (or with the nifty "pumpkin masters bare bones carving tools" from Walmart which is the best thing EVER).
2. Rinse them and separate the seeds from the slimy guts.
3. Boil clean seeds in water and salt. 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of salt per cup of seeds (or however salty you want them to be).
4. After bringing to a boil (and stirring a lot), let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
6. Prep a roasting pan by spreading a thin layer of olive oil across the bottom (1-2 tablespoons).
7. Strain seeds, spread a thin layer across the roasting pan.
8. Bake in oven for 5-20 minutes (depending on the amount of seeds)....I basically just kept tasting the seeds until they were just right.

THEY ARE JUST SO DELICIOUS.

Here's the process in pictures:
Scooping out the guts. Just as fun as can be.


Boiling water, seeds and salt.

Baking seeds with olive oil.

MINE FOR THE EATING. So yummy and roasty and GREAT. 
In conclusion, I will be heading to Walmart this afternoon to buy another pumpkin because these seeds aren't going to make it to the children. Oops.






Happy October!




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