October 2022 Kids’ Corner
from the Gale River Cooperative Preschool
Giving you Pumpkin to Talk About
As the nights get longer, the air gets crisper, and the leaves begin to litter the ground, the final harvests are pulled from gardens around northern New Hampshire. One common crop that’s popping up everywhere are pumpkins! Pumpkins have become synonymous with Halloween, but there’s more to them than their spooky connotation. Though not as juicy as berries or stone fruits, pumpkins are fruits since they grow from the flowering part of the plant. They’re also a winter squash and can contain around 500 seeds! Pumpkins are rich in beta carotene which makes them orange and is great for your eyesight. They are native to the southern half of North America and were grown as early as 7000 - 5,500 BCE. The largest pumpkin grown in the USA was actually grown right here in New Hampshire - Steve Geddes of Boscawen, NH grew a pumpkin weighing 2,528 pounds in 2018 at the Deerfield Fair!
Many of us likely have or are planning to carve a pumpkin this fall to create a jack-o-lantern. Did you know that pumpkins weren’t the original food used to create jack-o-lanterns? Turnips were! The myth of the Jack O’ Lantern goes that in Ireland, a man named Stingy Jack had a drink with the devil and tricked the devil into paying for the drink. When Jack died, the devil wouldn’t let him into the underworld so he had to wander the earth with a piece of coal for light inside a turnip becoming “Jack of the Lanturn.” People would carve turnips and place a light in them to ward off Stingy Jack. When Irish people immigrated to the United States, they brought the tradition with them and realized pumpkins would also make a perfect carving surface.
Want tips on how to explore pumpkins this October? Here are some great ideas:
Pumpkins are great for gross motor activities and physics activities. If you can create a ramp or have a hill nearby, try pushing the pumpkin up and rolling it down. When does the pumpkin go the fastest? Do different sized pumpkins move at different speeds? Place some paper on the ramp, add paint to the pumpkin and turn it into a craft!
Pumpkin seeds are a common snack, but where else can you find seeds? Go on a seed hunt and see if you can track down some other plant seeds. Some seeds travel by hitching a ride or fly through the air, others just grow where they fall or get washed elsewhere. What shapes do seeds come in?
Create a pumpkin-cano! Everyone loves the classic baking soda and vinegar volcano, but what if the reaction occurred inside a pumpkin? All you need for this sensory science experiment is:
A small pumpkin carved out
Warm water mixed with food coloring filled to about 3/4 full
4-5 drops of dish soap
A few tablespoons of baking soda
1/4 c of vinegar.
Mix the water, soap, and baking soda together in your pumpkin and, when you’re ready, add the vinegar to see what happens! It can be helpful to do this in a sink or to have a bowl underneath to catch the overflow.
Painting pumpkins. For some children, the carving might be a bit much, in which case painting works well instead! Acrylic works well so be sure to dress them in clothes that don’t matter or put on a smock. There are lots of cool painting techniques, from dipping, to splattering, to creating a design.
October 2021 Kids Corner
from the Gale River Cooperative Preschool
Exploring for Mushrooms and SlugS!
Both mushrooms and slugs are more common after it rains because they love the damp and moist environment. Mushrooms are easy to find in most woodlands. They grow in decaying leaf litter or on rotting logs and trees. Some mushrooms even have specific trees they grow under! Forests with beech, pine, birch and oak trees often have lots of mushrooms. Make sure to take your time and look along both the forest floor and on trees as shelf mushrooms grow on trees. Items from the forest should always be collected in moderation but don’t feel too bad about picking mushrooms, it’s the same as picking an apple or blackberries. The rest of the organism is underground. Always collect mushrooms in a wooden basket or something similar so spores can fall through the cracks and you’ll help the mushrooms spread.
On wet days, slugs are usually plentiful! Find them on rocks, trees, or in the leaf litter on the forest floor. On drier days you’ll have to go looking in their hiding places. Where would you hide if you were a slug? Slugs will often hide under logs and rocks so those are a great place to check. If you’re rolling rocks or logs remember to pull them towards you as opposed to pushing them away from you. You never know who might be living under there and they might not be excited to be found!
Mushroom Activities and Crafts:
Besides just collecting and observing mushrooms (get out your magnifying glasses!) mushrooms are a great opportunity to explore life cycles.
Act out the cycle of a mushroom by becoming a spore blowing in the wind, mycelium spreading underground, baby mushrooms popping up and mature mushrooms spreading new spores.
This can also be mimicked by building patterns. Pick a colored bead for each stage and build a pattern on yarn or a pipe cleaner to make a life cycle bracelet.
An activity for older children is making mushroom spore prints. Mushroom spores are different colors and, when not moved by the wind, fall in a specific pattern from the gills. The color and pattern are often used to identify them.
Collect some healthy looking and full mushrooms with intact gills and cap. Place the cap on a piece of paper and add a few drops of water to the cap to mimic moist conditions. Leave them alone for 2-24 hours. You can also put a glass or bowl over them if you think the spores might be blown around. Mushrooms whose edges all touch the paper will be best for this project. Check them and see what color and pattern their spores made!
Slug Activities and Crafts:
Slugs give us a great opportunity to experiment with texture!
Make oobleck out of cornstarch and water and have fun with its changes (solid when under pressure, liquid when not).
Source some sticky substances from your kitchen and see which is best as mimicking slug mucus. Jelly? Maple syrup?
Try adding a substance to the bottom of a small object and sliding it down an incline. Does it stay stuck and moving slowly or does it slip off or not move at all?
While exploring for slugs, you should also keep your eyes peeled for good materials to build your own! A piece of clay and items from nature such as sticks and leaves make great materials for crafting your own slug. Make sure to include both sets of feelers and some sort of pattern or color on its body.
Thanks to our partner, the Gale River Cooperative Preschool in Bethlehem, for helping our area parents get kiddos outside for fun no matter the time of year.
