Pumpkin Patch Trip

What a nasty day!   It felt more like winter than fall.   Luckily, Anita Nyboer was willing to work with us to move our pumpkin patch trip inside!  She brought two helpers along, and the children had the opportunity to choose one pumpkin, two gourds and a piece of Indian corn.  Then the ladies came into the classrooms and told the kids all about the farm.

Jennifer Stork came into our classroom and showed the kids various home grown plants from Nyboer's Farm.  She began by showing us a stalk of corn.  She discussed three types of corn grown on the farm.  She taught the kids that feed corn is hard, dry and grown to feed animals.  The stalks are taller than she is.  Sweet corn is also grown there, but she explained that stalks of sweet corn are as tall as a first grader. The last type of corn grown is Indian corn.  

Jennifer showed the kids a pumpkin and explained that there are many animals that live very near the pumpkin patch that like to eat pumpkins.   The Nyboers have set up different scarecrows around the farm to keep the animals from sampling.  They even have a scarecrow that looks like a coyote and one in the pond that looks like the Loch Ness monster!   She explained that deer like to eat the pumpkin shells.   There is a bird with a large beak that loves the inside of the pumpkin, but not the seeds, so they poke a perfect hole in the outside to get to the inside, but leave piles of seeds on the ground.  There are also squirrels, groundhogs and other animals who visit for a free lunch.   She also explained how pumpkins are grown on a vine and that when the blossom falls off, a tiny green pumpkin starts to grow in its place. The pumpkin is green until fall, when it turns orange and is picked.

Next Jennifer showed us a sunflower grown on the farm.  She talked about how sunflowers face the sun all day long as they are growing.   When fall comes around, the heads are just too heavy to follow the sun.  Birds love to visit the sunflowers and eat the seeds.   She talked about how the seeds need to be taken off the head and roasted and salted to be eaten.  She left a sunflower for our class, so maybe we will try it if I can find directions or a recipe.

Jennifer told the kids that if they let their Indian corn dry for 30 days or more, they can take the kernels off the cob and pop it to make popcorn!  You can even put the entire cob into your microwave and watch the popcorn pop right off the cob!  She puts her kernels in her hot air popper, but I think it's more fun to do it in the microwave!  Beware, it is very messy and I ended up with some burnt popcorn, so be careful how long you put it in the microwave.

We also did some fun math activities with our farm treasures before we took them home.  We measured the circumference of our pumpkins.  The kids each had a chance to estimate where to cut a piece of yarn and measure around the middle of their pumpkin.  We actually had three students estimate an equal length, but most of us estimated too long or too short.  We then measured the area of our Indian corn.  They traced around the corn on a grid, then counted how many squares the corn covered.  Last, we measured the weight of one of our gourds against pennies.   

A fun day was had by everyone even though we missed out on a short bus ride and a wagon ride.  I do not think the kids were very disappointed, and we ended up with no muddy clothes, treasures, or ripped bags from heavy, wet treasures.   Thank you to the Nyboers and Jennifer Stork for everything!