PPOS Kindergarten Families Celebrate ‘Life Cycle Learning’

The doors swung open and a line of kindergarteners stood shoulder to shoulder at the front of Morgan Webb’s classroom at Pagosa Peak Open School. Parents quietly filtered into the room and waited for the festivities to begin. Minutes later the group broke into song: “Do you know how pumpkins grow?”

The lyrics walked the audience through the lifecycle of a pumpkin while the performers’ movements emphasized each stage.

This day was a culmination of a months-long project students had been working on with Ms. Webb since October. Students studied how light, water and soil affect plants; planted their own pumpkin seeds; compared and contrasted types of pumpkins; journaled the stages of decomposition after cutting open a pumpkin; and in the end, cooked with pumpkin at home and brought in treats for taste-testing.

“We learned all the ins-and-outs of the pumpkin,” Ms. Webb said. “I am so proud of them for learning the lifecycle and applying it so quickly. They especially loved getting hands-on and dissecting the pumpkin.”

During the festival, students walked their families through pumpkin-themed centers that emphasized the kindergarten standards covered through the project.

Students counted, sorted letters, organized stages of the life cycle, painted pumpkins, and read stories with their guardians.

In the end, families gathered around their potluck contributions and shared the food they made with their children at home.

Ms. Webb started as a kindergarten teacher at Pagosa Peak Open School in the spring of last year, and has years of experience teaching projects in early elementary. She’s looking forward to her next project: exploring weather concepts starting this month.

Pagosa Peak Open School is the only District-authorized charter school in Archuleta County. The educational model and curriculum are built around Project-Based Learning.