Sunday, November 6, 2016

Busy Saturday

Seven Sweet Pumpkin Pie Pumpkins.
Freshly washed with Clorox Wipes to removed some of the mold found on these.
Gotta love produce shopping in Alaska!
After two weeks in the classroom setting up routines and getting my students to understand that I am the adult in charge and that I say what I mean and mean what I say, last week I began academic assessments and activities.

We did math activities with small sweet pumpkins.  At the Fred Meyers in Anchorage, these little beauties were priced individually at something like $2.49 each.  But they didn't have 7 pumpkins, and the few left were in sad shape (such is the story of buying produce in Alaska).

When we dropped by the Fred Meyers near our home, they had a HUGE box of small sweet pumpkins, with no price listed.  I was a bit shocked when I learned, at check out, they were per pound!  There was no way I was going to let these expensive babies go home with the students!

Friday, I hauled the seven pumpkins home, bruised from falls off desks and out of students' hands, some with bandaids from being poked and explored by busy fingers.


Before I could deal with the pumpkins, I fulfilled my commitment to my mom and the knitting group at the Senior Center by helping set up their booth at the Senior Center craft sale.  A retired teacher donated a bunch of earrings to the knitting group, and I had to grab these for my friend who often dresses like Miss Frizzle from Magic School Bus.

Upon my return home in the early afternoon, Mr. FiberJewels assisted me in cutting pumpkins, carving out bruises and bad spots and in the oven they went.  


While in the oven, I began cleaning the seeds.


Many of my students haven't seen the inside of a pumpkin, tasted raw pumpkin, or even sampled a bite of cooked pumpkin.  We reserved a pumpkin half, with seeds still inside for them.

Monday we will be:

Sampling roasted pumpkin seeds;

and baking pumpkin bread - the rest of the pumpkin puree is in the freezer for Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pies, and other goodies over the winter.

My house smelled of roasting squash pumpkin.  While it was cooking, I got to sit down and knit.

Please excuse poor picture quality.

I was worried if I'd have enough yarn to finish the bind off!

Falling Leaves Lace Shawl completed!

Luckily, I had enough, just enough. I cut off only about 6 inches before I started to weave in ends!

Today will be spent doing weekend chores, getting plans completed for my classroom for the week. Baking a loaf of pumpkin bread while preparing what I'll bring to class for the students to help me mix up another loaf of pumpkin bread.

Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in some more knitting!

POST PUBLISH UPDATE:  My pumpkin bread recipe made two loaves, so the students will not be baking pumpkin bread, but will be able to taste it during pm snack!

2 comments:

Caffeine Girl said...

You are dream teacher! You bringing so much variety into the classroom. Your students must adore you already!

FiberJewels said...

Thank you. I LOVE them, but their bizarre coping behaviors are driving me CRAZY!