Punked the Rotting Pumpkin

One of my favourite books to read in the fall and at Hallowe'en is Mousekin's Golden House.  It's an old book and I don't think it is printed any longer.  

(I managed to find this one at a Friends of the Library sale)

It's about a little mouse that makes his winter home in an old jack o'lantern.

Over the winter the mouse stays safe inside but the outside changes.

When Hallowe'en was over the Little One's parents were throwing their jack o'lanterns into the compost.

We rescued one, gave him a name, Punked, and left him in the back yard.

We visited it every few days,

and watched it change.

We noticed that something was nibbling on it.

Maybe it was a mouse!

On our morning walks we would look at other people's jack o'lanterns,

abandoned on the steps or lawn.

How have they changed?

Ours had certainly changed after just a couple of weeks.

We visited the library and borrowed Pumpkin Jack.

About a little boy that didn't want to throw his jack o'lantern away so put it back in the garden.

Eventually it rotted away but a few seeds were left inside and the following spring new plants began to grow.

That would have been a great idea but we didn't think of it at the time of carving.

Poor Punked.

There's not much left of him one month after Hallowe'en.

Changes to Mousekin's Golden House

It's been one week since we carved Mousekin's Golden House.

 Each day the children would check on Mousekin and notice how the pumpkin has changed.

 I borrowed another book, from the library, called Rotten Pumpkin

that shows the deterioration of decomposing pumpkin.

By the end of the week I had to pull Mousekin out before 

he got squashed.

We'll put it out in the garden next and continue to watch it.

Revisiting the Pumpkin Patch - Small World Play

Last week we visited Shamrock Farms Pumpkin Patch

and enjoyed searching in the fields for our own pumpkins to take home.

Back at school I set up a simple small world play with dirt, real and fake pumpkins,

a farmer and tractor and buildings.  

One building I painted to look similar to the small playhouse 

at Shamrock Farms.

Mousekin's Goldenhouse

One of my favourite Hallowe'en books is Mousekin's Golden House.

It is now out of print but I was lucky to find this copy at a used book sale.

We started making our Golden House at the pumpkin patch 

and finished it back at school the next day.

Then we met Mousekin.

 The next morning the children arrived to find this message.

This child was interested and found some cotton, pieces of wool and a tissue.

 As she started to fill the house a few others became interested.

Mousekin was ready to be moved in.

A tidy little, comfy house with windows to peek through.

Pumpkin Porridge

 This week we made pumpkin porridge for snack.

I found the recipe at Damn Delicious. 

We began by exploring the oats.

Touching them when they were dry.

We measured the oats into the frying pan

a quarter of a cup at a time so everyone had a turn.

Next came the almond milk.

We doubled the recipe so there would be enough for the families

that arrive after we cooked.

We stirred it altogether.

We did this before I turned the frying pan on

so the children could touch it without being burned.

As we waited for the oats to cook we smelled the pumpkin

and to help them connect it to the real form of a pumpkin

we checked out our pumpkin head scarecrow.

Then back at the table we smelled the cinnamon and nutmeg,

and watched the bubbles start in the oatmeal.

Time to add the pumpkin and spices.

Ready to serve but it a little too hot to eat

so we practiced blowing on it to cool it down.

It wasn't very sweet so I sprinkled a little of this Pumpkin flavoured sugar

that I found at Michael's.

Yum.