I mean, seriously, 2 months from today it’s Christmas.  What. Is. Up. ?!?!?!?!? The days seem to be dragging by, but then, when I really stop and think about it I’m all, Did most of 2011 already happen?!  Totally crazy.  And when it comes to school, I start thinking, How am going to fit in all this fun seasonal stuff with only 4 more school days until Halloween?!  But, I’m trying.  Trying hard. Last week, we wrapped up Chapter 3 in Math in Focus, and culminated our study of addition (1-10) with Halloweeny story problems.  I’m still *loving* MIF, btw.  We’ve recently improved our ability to visualize, and the kiddos absolutely adored the cute Jack Prelutsky poem recommended by Amanda and Deanna, who’ve both completed similar visualization activities. And, though I don’t have any pictures, we also listened to some spooky Halloween music (you can find free downloads here – just save to your computer), and the kiddos drew what they imagined in their minds as we listened to it.  FYI, we listened to “Halloween Graveyard” approximately 497 times since it was only a little over 2 minutes long!  Their pics turned out great! Oops!  How’d that get in there?!  Yes, this is what Becks does while he waits for the babysitter to pick him up from me at school.  And also takes out every small manipulative he can find.  Or playdoh.  Regardless, after he leaves, there’s always a mess to clean up! Now to this week: First, we completed some pumpkin observations and guessed how many seeds were inside our orange friend.  The lowest guess was 4 and the highest guess was 4000!  Then, we cut into him to reveal all of his pumpkin guts – the best part 🙂 Then, it was time to sort through the innards and group pumpkin seeds by 10.  What. A. MESS!!!  A fun mess, though!  I was surprised to know that there were actually 689 seeds in there!  Lastly, we voted on how we should carve our pumpkin’s eyes, nose, and mouth.  I am sooooo not a pumpkin carver, but B is!  So, I’m totally brining good ol’ Jack home to let him carve him up before our Fall Festival.  {PS.  This idea is based off of Cara’s voting idea! Cara’s is about 12 times cuter than mine, though!!!}  And, right now, I can smell these roasting in the oven.  YUMMO. I’ll be back tomorrow with our pumpkin seed wrap up, and an itty-bitty mini-unit freebie to go along with it! I hope you’re keeping your goblins at bay this week!  What on Earth are we all going to do to get through the day on Monday?!  Eeeeeee!!!!!!  Just thinking about the anticipation of 21 first graders awaiting the end of school day on Monday makes me break into a cold sweat!  Diet Coke, anyone?! Happy Tuesday!