1-2-3 Come Label A Pumpkin With Me

Although I’ve seen a variety of 3D pumpkin crafts using paper strips to form the sphere, I could not find a pattern anywhere.

After a few hours of diddling around, I came up with this simple “print & go” pumpkin craftivity, complete with several pattern options and step-by-step directions using photographs of the various stages.

Few teachers have the luxury of simply making a craft just for fun; so to incorporate some science standards, one of the options is to make a “label the pumpkin” craft.

I’ve included labeled templates for little ones, as well as blank ones, so that older students can label their own pieces.

You can also opt to simply make an unlabeled pumpkin, with the “skin strips” going all the way around the “core”, which is a toilet paper tube that's covered with a rectangular pattern sprinkled with pumpkin seed graphics.

This is easy enough for little ones to make, as they simply use the 5-fatter “shell” strips for their open-looking pumpkin. 

If you want to make the pumpkin plumper, simply add 5 of the thin shell strips, which will alternate between the fatter ones, creating a fat-thin-fat-thin pattern. 

For that finishing touch that's wonderful fine motor practice, have students loop a green pipe cleaner around a pencil, marker or crayon, then gently slide off to make a "vine".

Completed pumpkins are free standing and make adorable fall centerpieces.

For more pizzazz, using a protractor, punch holes in the TP tube prior to assembly, then place over a battery-operated tea light.

I’ve also designed the stem as a “looped handle”, so that the pumpkin "lantern" can be carried, or suspended from the ceiling on various lengths of yarn.

A fun surprise after lunch...

After children have made their pumpkin (leaving it on their desk to go to lunch), tuck a Snack Baggie filled with candy corn inside the hollow TP tube, providing a sweet Halloween treat when they return from recess.

Besides this craft, I also put together a little "Let's Label a Pumpkin" activity packet, that pairs nicely.   

Do you have a class pumpkin? We do. It’s an inexpensive and super-fun way to practice all sorts of science.

We carve our pumpkin the last week of October for our party’s centerpiece.
As we carve it, my students learn the vocabulary associated with the parts of a pumpkin, as well as what each part does, or is used for.

They absolutely love this activity. With that in mind, I made some activities to help reinforce “pumpkin parts”.

The packet includes:
* A set of “definition posters”.
* A set of photo posters featuring pictures of real pumpkin parts.
* A set of pocket chart cards.

* A “Match the picture to the word” Memory Match or “I Have; Who Has?” game.
* “Label a pumpkin” posters and worksheets.
* Fill-in-the blank” comprehension worksheet.

* Match the word to the picture worksheet.
* “ABC With Me” alphabetize the words worksheet.
* Plus an emergent reader: “Pumpkin Parts”, featuring 30+ words from the Dolch word lists.

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a pumpkin theme.

Are your students working on transitions and "how to" "directional" writing?  "How to Make a Pumpkin Pie" is a quick, easy and fun activity to help them practice.

The packet includes printable patterns, completed sample, recipe, list of transitions, transition poster, a graphing extension, Venn diagram activity, plus an adjective worksheet.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

The weather is in the high 60s here in Michigan, so the fresh autumn breeze is calling me. 

Time to go crunch some leaves and enjoy the awesome colors, while I walk my poodle pup Chloe. 

She never cares what the weather is, anything for a romp outside.

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a fallen leaf." -Unknown