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The age group that I am studying is between the ages of 6 and 7. My host teacher Ms Hollinger and assistance teacher Ms Harcourt who is bilingual they have 21 students there are 4 children that her Hispanic children, two of them are bilingual. They are preparing her student for their field trip to the pumpkin patch. One of her student Taylor Swift, grandparents has a pumpkin patch.  The Swift family donated about 200 pumpkins to the whole school.  The Swift’s has a farm outside of Crete. Taylor presented pictures of her with her family mom and dad, her little brother Jonas and grandparents while they were working on the farm. Okay, back to the class. Ms Hollinger asks the children if they ever carved out a pumpkin or draw faces on them. Some reply yes, some said no. So the children were provided different art supplies, construction paper to draw a face for their pumpkins. Markers, crayon, colored pencils and moving eyes, pom-pom, glitter, glue, and stickers.

The next day the children view a movie “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Good old Charlie Brown, who year after year searches for the Great Pumpkin. This is one of my favorite classic cartoon movies. The children enjoy watching. The four children that are Hispanic children we had special accommodate for them we view the movies in two ways. We view in English and in Spanish. The children had a chance to listen in English, Spanish and watch closed captions. They were placed in groups of four. They painted their picture; they had to explain what they like about the movies.

Guess What!! Today is our field trip. I decided to attend the trip with my host and her students. This was a great experience for me. I have always attended on trips with my own children. This was like a special treat. I look at this as one of our teachable movements.  The children had a chance to ask question. For instance, they ask our tour guide, “How did you get all of these pumpkins?” Can we eat them, how long does it take for them to grow?  As I stated before, Ms Harcourt is our bilingual teacher. the two children who were not ELL. Ms Harcourt explains to the children what was going on.  As she was explaining, I can see the happy smile , the changes of facial expression on their faces.  the sound of laughter, and giggles. They really enjoy the hay ride.

What we all learned; there are different kinds of pumpkins. There actually a number of different squashes in the family Cucurbitaceous, the same family as gourds.  The gourd we commonly call pumpkin is usually orange or yellow, though they can also be white, green or "blue".  Squash, on the other hand, are more commonly thought of as yellow green, though as with pumpkins, a variety of colors can be found.

I attended the trip with the class, we had a great time. All living things have a life cycle and the main thing that a child will learn from their trip to the pumpkin patch is the life cycle of a pumpkin in action. You can teach children about life cycles in the classroom until they are numb but it will stick in their minds much more vividly when they have the opportunity to experience it firsthand. Granted at the time of the visit to the pumpkin patch the pumpkins are near the end of their lifecycle, but the educational director of the farm will typically take the time to explain and illustrate the other steps in the pumpkin's life cycle.