"Pumpkin Pumpkin" Fall Literature Inspired Writing Craftivity

Have you read Jeanne Titherington's Pumpkin Pumpkin? It's a wonderful picture book about a little boy who plants a pumpkin seed in the spring, watches it grow throughout the summer, and in the fall, harvests his pumpkin to create a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, ending up with a pile of seeds to plant the next year! A fantastic tale about seasons and the life cycle of a pumpkin, this story inspired some fun activities in the Pre-K class at Cedarville Nursery School.

"Pumpkins" Class Book

Titherington's book offers a fantastic look at the journey a pumpkin seed takes in order to become a beautiful orange pumpkin! After reading and discussing the story, Mrs. D had her Pre-K kiddos create their own class book. They worked together in small groups using crayons and construction paper to illustrate each scene in the life cycle of the pumpkin and then dictated a sentence to describe the scene.

While the main character in the story turned his pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, you might consider having each student create an individual page showing what they would use their pumpkin for - i.e. pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, roasted pumpkin seeds, a flower pot, etc. These can be added to the back of the class book and are a fun way to personalize the story/show that it's always possible for a story to have many different endings!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Along with the class book, Mrs. D and her kiddos used orange paint, a pumpkin template, and black construction paper to create jack-o-lanterns to hang around the classroom!

Trish over at Preschool Playbook shares the full lesson plan and process so be sure to check it out! The completed class book is beautiful and the jack-o-lanterns turned out pretty cute!