1-2-3 Come Do Some Pumpkin Shape Activities With Me

Do you read the story “Spookley The Square Pumpkin”, by Joe Troiano?  This cute book has a message of tolerance, acceptance and being kind, which is so important in today’s diversified classrooms. 

It’s also a great read if your class follows a “bucket filling” program. I use it to practice 2D shapes as well.

With these things in mind, I designed this “shapely pumpkin packet” which includes an emergent reader booklet featuring words from the Dolch lists, with a full page option teacher's can share, as well as a 2-on-a-page pattern for your students. 

Students read, trace, write and color, as well as draw the 2D shapes: circle, oval, rectangle, square, triangle, & hexagon. They also underline the capital letters and include the end punctuation.

There’s also a quick, easy and super-fun "shapely pumpkin" craftivity.

If your school's not into Halloween, but a harvest theme, students pick a shape and make a plain, pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.

Older students can write the name of the shape on the front of their pumpkin and a list of attributes on the back.

My school celebrates Halloween, so we opt for a Jack-O-Lantern "shapely pumpkin".

I've included the blank patterns mentioned above, where students can draw on their own face, plus there's a set with facial features on each pumpkin shape that match the shape of their pumpkin. (Check out the photographs.)

Besides the standard shapes listed above, I’ve also included patterns to make a pentagon, octagon, trapezoid, rhombus, heart and star pumpkin too.

For some extra 3D pizzazz, have students strengthen those finger muscles by wrapping a green pipe cleaner around a pencil to create a vine, which they attach to the top of the back of their pumpkin using a piece of tape.

Completed projects make an adorable, pumpkin patch bulletin board. Use the 3 posters for the center of your display, and the "pumpkin patch" sign for the side.

Afterwards, use the graphing extension to see which pumpkin shape was your students' favorite.

For further reinforcement, there’s a set of colorful pumpkin cards, which feature all of the 12, 2D shapes listed.

Use as a center for an independent sorting activity. You can also make an extra set; cut the cards in half to make puzzles.
The matching pocket chart cards could also be cut in half. (These cards are on the cover photo.)

There are shape word cards for a Memory Match game as well. Children can match picture to word, or picture to picture.

You can use these for an “I Have; Who Has?” game too. “I have the circle shaped pumpkin card. Who has the circle word card?”

The packet also includes several writing prompts based on "Spookley", as well as 2 Venn diagrams, plus several bookmarks.

Because "Spookley The Square Pumpkin" is a rhyming story, I've also included  a “Rhyme Time” activity, where students think of words that rhyme with square. 

You can do this independently using the worksheet, or list them together as a whole group.  As always, I've made an answer key with an alphabetical list of 81 words! 

Today's featured FREEBIE, is also a rhyme.  Since I don't have time anymore to do a specific unit on nursery rhymes, I try to include matching themed ones with whatever we're currently studying.

Thus "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is perfect for October.  Click on the link for a sweet, keepsake craftivity, along with a poster poem of the rhyme. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for popping in.

The trees have just started to turn beautiful orange, yellows and red, so it's time for a nice long walk with Chloe. Wishing you a relaxing day.

"Autumn leaves come falling down; red, orange, yellow and brown." -Unknown

 1-2-3 Come Do A Few Pumpkin Craftivities With Me

Now that October is nearing an end and your students have hopefully read a zillion fall books, or you've read them during story time, have children choose their favorite fall book and do one or more of the craftivities in this Common Core Pumpkin packet, which covers a lot of reading and writing standards.  Woo Hoo!

The packet includes:

A pumpkin book report craftivity. 

"Read it" is a play on words for "Ribbit" so I've also included a little frog template that you can run off. 

Students color, trim and glue the frog to their pumpkin.  There's also a blank pumpkin template without the words "Read it"  

Students can leave the pumpkin plain, or draw on a face to make a Jack-O-Lantern, especially if they're writing about a Halloween book.

Run off the "pumpkin guts" writing prompt section on yellow paper. Students  fill in with information about their favorite book.

Add some finishing touches with crayons and a school photo glued to the stem.

The packet also includes another writing activity without a craft.

Older  students write about two of their favorite fall books on the recording sheet.

If you want them to compare and constrast the books they've chosen, they can fill out the Venn diagram to help organize their thoughts.

Are you working on retelling a story with your kiddos? The beginning-middle-end story pumpkin craftivity, will be a fun way for them to share their thoughts.

As with the other craft, I've also included a blank pumpkin pattern, so students can draw on their own face.  Run off the template of your choice on orange construction paper. 

Students place the orange pumpkin paper on the top of a yellow sheet of construction paper and cut once, creating the inside of their page at the same time that they cut out their pumpkin cover.

Children glue or staple their booklet together. (I've provided a nice wide tab on the left side.)  Cutting on the dashed lines of the orange paper, students create a flip booklet to explain the beginning, middle and end of their story.

I've included samples of both projects, so you can quickly and easily make your own examples to share with your students. 

For my book report pumpkin,  I chose the story Big Pumpkin, by Erica Silverman. 

For the retelling-a-story pumpkin, I chose The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid Of Anything, by Linda Williams.  These are two of my all-time favorite Halloween books.  They've always been favorites for my Y5's as well. 

Any of the activities work well for your Daily 5, and are especially fun for Halloween party day.  Let's face it, most children are so energized that day, that it's nice to have something a bit out of the ordinary, to grab their attention and keep them focused, while still learning something relevant.

Completed projects make wonderful bulletin boards or hallway displays. The pumpkin book report looks cute hung back-to-back suspended from the ceiling.

A nice bonus about the pumpkin craftivities without Jack-O-Lantern faces, is that you can keep these displays up through Thanksgiving, with the rest of your November harvest things.

Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Pumpkin Reading Craftivities.

Thanks for visiting today. I'm dashing off to do some serious grocery shopping. 

You know you're low on things when you're out of condiments like ketchup and mayo, to say nothing of the rest that I need to make dinner for tonight. Wishing you a productive day.

"The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scale." -- Aesop  

1-2-3 Come Do Some Pumpkin Craftivities With Me

Quite a few of my most popular downloads are those that involve a hands-on craft.  With all of the standards we have to teach, I realize that many teachers don't feel that they have any time left in their day for the "fun" things they used to do. 

With that in mind, I try to incorporate some standards in the crafts that I design, thus the name "craftivities".  I decided to feature  A Baker's Dozen   of my all-time favorite pumpkin craftivities in this article, since the number 13 can certainly be associated with Halloween.  Although I've used the term a baker's dozen for years, I didn't know why it came about.  If you're curious too, click on the link. 

Since Apple Sense was such a huge hit, I decided to make a Pumpkin Sense one.  This is a quick, easy and fun way to review the 5 senses, as well as work on the importance of adjectives in descriptive writing. 

Having a carved class pumpkin isn't necessary, but really helps.  Adding a hand print leaf and photo adds that finishing touch.

Another writing craftivity is the Personal Pumpkin Patch Craft.Family relationship names, (mom, dad, sister, brother etc.) are a part of most teacher's word walls, so I wanted to think of something that would tie into building that vocabulary. 

Via a note home to parents, which is included in the packet,  you'll have the personal information needed to help your kiddo's make a personal pumpkin. 

There are also family word cards that you can use in a pocket chart or for flashcards, plus several worksheets and a Tally Time activity with math extensions.

Pumpkins In The News  reinforces the letter Pp, and has a variety of writing options as well. Students find and cut out shapes to make a pumpkin face, as well as letters that spell their name.  These will be used for the pumpkin's smile.  They can also search for all of the letter Pps on their pumpkin and circle them.

 For writing practice, younger students trace and write the Pp is for pumpkin worksheet and glue it to the back of their pumpkin.  Brainstorm with older students of why pumpkins might be in the news.  They choose a topic and then write about it on the pumpkin template, trim and then glue to the back of their newsprint pumpkin. 

Punch a hole in the stem and suspend from the ceiling. There's also a pattern for a class-made book entitled: The Case Of The Missing Pumpkins. 

The Shapely Pumpkin Packet  reviews 2D shapes and includes a spinner game and worksheet. Sponge painting is a super-fun, non-messy way for little ones to paint with awesome results.

I've been doing the Peekin' In A Pumpkin for 15 years.  It also reviews shapes, as a Jack-O-Lantern face is on the front. The "guts" of the pumpkin are on the other side. 

I put a dollop of Elmer's glue with a bit of yellow paint in the middle and let my students swirl it around with a Q-tip, then glue bits of yarn and real pumpkin seeds on, for an awesome result.

Add a bit of science to your day with the Life Cycle Of A Pumpkin Craftivity.  There are 3 options for this cute pumpkin bowl craft. 

You can review 2D shapes and have students draw a Jack-O-Lantern face on the back, or you can teach some pumpkin facts with the pumpkins ARE, HAVE, CAN writing prompt; (I've included a completed sample.) or you can explain the life cycle of a pumpkin, and have students color, trim and glue that circle to the back of their pumpkin bowl. 

Curling ribbon and a child's hand print leaf add the finishing touches.  These look terrific suspended from the ceiling too.

The  Triple Play Pumpkin  also has 3 options.  

One involves measurement activities, another investigates the inside and outside of a pumpkin and uses adjectives to record findings; while the last one involves writing about things that scare you. 

This is a 3 dimensional pumpkin as students glue 3-4 paper circles together.

We do a lot of singing in Y5's.  It's a fun way to learn all sorts of things, review concepts and the children really enjoy it.  One of their favorite October songs was Pumpkin Round and Fat. 

When I Googled the song, I found a sweet Popsicle stick puppet over at Teacher Mama.  Click on the link for a pattern and my version. Pumpkin Puppet.

If you're a homeschooling parent and looking for an awesome, but easy fall centerpiece that your child can make, then I think you'll enjoy the  Dryer Hose Pumpkin.

This idea has been around for decades, but I just learned of it a few years ago when I met a crafty gal at Hobby Lobby.  I actually made these with my Y5's.  Their mommies were really impressed, as they turned out so cute.  They cost about $1 each to make.

If you haven't made puffy paint by mixing shaving cream, Elmer's glue and tempera, then you're in for a treat. 

This photo doesn't do justice to how absolutely awesome these turned out, as our pumpkins puffed up to over an inch high when they dried.

We also revisit this technique in January when we make snowmen.  Click on the link for the Puffy Pumpkin.  To see a photo of our snowmen click here. For some reason, you can see the puffiness much better in the snowman pictures.

Finally, to round out my baker's dozen, I wanted to share 3 outstanding pumpkin crafts that I found Online. 

Tammy's Kool Aid Pumpkins from over at Housing a Forest, has been pinned over 1,000 times from my pumpkin Pinterest board.  She has a quick tutorial of how to make these terrific-looking pumpkins that smell scrumptious.

Mrs. Withrow, over at Garden of Praise, makes these adorable Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater nursery rhyme pumpkins with her kinders, and substitutes their name for the word wife.  LOVE the pictures she took of her kiddos to place inside.

Lastly, but not "leastly" is a sweet paper plate pumpkin Mask, from over at DLTK Kids. 

If you don't have time to have each child make one, whip 5 different Jack-O-Lanterns up yourself, and have students use them as manipulatives to act out the popular 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting On A Gate poem.

Mrs. Alvarado over at Learning Safari does this with 5 large tag board pumpkins.  Too cute!

Whew! That's a whole "lotta" pumpkin stuff. Hopefully you found a few things to add some extra fun to your pumpkin activities. 

I'm off to do some much-needed grocery shopping.  Maybe my grandson and I will make a stop at the farmer's market to pick out a pumpkin!  Wishing you a fun-filled day!

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Learn About Pumpkins With Me!

Our pumpkin unit was one of my Y5's favorites.  We culminated our apple studies and launched into pumpkins, with a field trip to an apple orchard, that also had a huge pumpkin patch.  My little ones really enjoyed the tractor ride, and picking out a class pumpkin.

To empower my students, I designed activities that incorporated the same directions from the previous unit.  I had already spent quite a bit of time explaining how various things were done, when we studied apples, so to save time, I repeated some of those activities only with a pumpkin theme. 

My students were now familiar with the format and could get right down to business.  This was a great self-esteem builder.  Because the theme had changed, students' interest was high, and children whose "light bulb" had not come on with apples, had another chance to practice and reinforce those lessons with pumpkins.

Keeping that in mind, I wanted to turn some of the most popular apple downloads, into pumpkins, so that this time-saving concept would work for you too.

It usually took through November, before all of my Y5's could identify the flat shapes, so I made a Pumpkin Shape Matching Game like the apple one.

Likewise, the apple counting anchor charts with matching "What's Missing?" worksheets, were extremely popular, so I made a pumpkin set. 

Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Counting Packet.

I also made pumpkin number cards.
This packet includes pumpkins numbered from 1-120; pumpkin number words 0-10, pumpkin tiles for counting, and a set of math symbols on pumpkins, so that you can show and make equations, plus a blank set of pumpkins to program with whatever. Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Number Packet.

Finally, there's also a Pumpkin Number Word Matching Game. Print, laminate and trim the cards.  Students pinch a clothespin on to the number that matches the number word on the pumpkin. 

If you mark an X on the back of the cards to show the correct answer, students can self-check their work.  I made a set for apples too.  All of these activities make wonderful independent centers, or something students can go do, if they finish their work early.

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"More people than ever before are graduated, but not really all that educated." -Robert Gunderson