Pumpkin Book Reports

In an effort to increase family involvement and to provide opportunities for students to practice public speaking, students complete monthly thematic projects. One of my favorite monthly projects in the Fall is the Pumpkin Book Report. With this project, students work with the families to create a character from a book using either a real pumpkin or a paper drawing of a pumpkin. The sky is the limit as students use their creativity to recreate a favorite character from a beloved book.

Baby Mummy from Where's My Mummy

Piggie from the series by Mo Willems

A. Wolf from The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Mike from Monster's Inc.

Since this project is done during the month of October it is one of the first monthly projects to be completed each year. The best part is that students get excited about reading and they are free to use their imagination to make their pumpkin into a character in whatever way they want to. Of course there are rules to the project: Students may not carve their pumpkin in any way and they must complete a written book report which fully describes the character from the text. Students present their pumpkin book report to their peers and families are invited into the classroom to celebrate the students' hard work.