Pumpkin Jack, by Will Hubbell, is one of my newest purchases for our classroom library.  I really love this book.  It’s beautifully illustrated, ties in so well to the kids’ schema for pumpkins, and gives a great example of the life cycle of the pumpkin.

We used this story to help us create Mental Images and visualize.  We did retellings in several different ways, and we also made Pumpkin Life Cycle books.  This is a short week for us, due to parent/teacher conferences, but if I had more time I would have done a few more activities with the pumpkin life cycle and a lot more hands-on exploration.

We have a variety of pumpkins and gourds in our classroom for drawing and observing.  The kids have loved drawing on black paper with oil pastels, and of course they love observing with the magnifying glasses.  Unfortunately, one of our pumpkins had a Humpty-Dumpty type accident and landed on the floor.  Although the kids were sad to see the pumpkin cracked open, it did spill out some of the pulp and seeds, which made a great opportunity for learning.

If you are interested in the Pumpkin Life Cycle booklet, I found it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  It was written by Fun Time Early Learning.

Click Here to go to the free download on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Happy reading!