Each year we do a special project in the fall to celebrate reading together as a family. I try to rotate several different projects so that the kids don't get burnt out on doing the same project every year. The last time we did Storybook Pumpkins was the Fall of 2014 so about half of our students had never done this project. I am always blown away by the creativity of our students and their families!! My main goal for this project is actually not the pumpkins (although I do LOVE seeing our library filled with these works of art) is to get our families to read together and work on a project together related to that book. I want them to talk about the book, the characters, what they liked and didn't like. The pumpkins are just a super cute bonus! My hope is that reading together becomes a regular thing in every one of our families! Our Storybook Pumpkin Contest had 3 simple instructions: 1. Read a book together as a family. 2. Choose a character from that book and decorate a pumpkin to look like that character. 3. DO NOT CARVE PUMPKINS!! I explained the project to our students during their weekly library visit and sent a letter home to their families about 2 weeks before the pumpkins were due. I made the project due date on a Monday and allowed students that forgot to bring their pumpkins on Tuesday. Judging took place throughout the day on Wednesday. I had 4 judges. Two of the judges were our instructional coaches and the other two were people from outside our school. Each judge had a rubric and score sheet to fill out. We had 1 winner from Kindergarten - and 1st Grade, 1 from 2nd and 3rd Grade, and 1 from 4th and 5th Grade. We announced the winners on Thursday so that our students could take their pumpkins home that day (they were out of school on Friday). I absolutely didn't want to leave them in library over the 3 Day weekend to avoid the "Spongebob Incident of 2014" which you can read about here! We had 95 students (which is about 1/3 of our school) participate in this year's Storybook Pumpkin contest! I honestly was not expecting that many to participate in a completely voluntary project. The kids love this project and so do I so we may have to make it more a more regular event! Click here to download your copy of the Storybook Pumpkin Contest pack! It includes the parent letter, the student handout to be returned with the pumpkin, the judging rubric, and the judging score sheets. Here are photos of just a few of our pumpkins!
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AuthorI am an elementary educator in Birmingham, AL. I have previously taught preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. I now have the BEST job as an elementary school librarian or "The Library Lady" as I'm called by the kindergartners! Archives
March 2017
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