Storybook Pumpkin Patch in Your Library
Hi friends!
It’s time to grow a storybook pumpkin patch in our school libraries!
This is one of my very favorite activities in our school library! It promotes reading with our families, lets our students show their creative side, and decorates the library with colorful reading promotions–all with very little time invested on my part!
Here’s a look at last year’s pumpkin patch.
Here’s how it happens.
The Flier
First, before the long Columbus Day weekend, I send a flier home with all of our preK-5th grade students. It explains the rules:
- pumpkin must be smaller than a basketball
- no cutting the pumpkins (they will rot very quickly)
- everyone gets a prize when they pick up their pumpkin
- on the back of the flyer, students write the title and author of their book and tell us a little bit about the character
The Pumpkins
My students are so proud to bring in the pumpkins that they’ve created with their families. Even though some of the pumpkins are based on movies or songs or video games rather than books, we display them all. We cover the tops of our bookshelves with green butcher paper, and display each pumpkin with its flier next to it. If we have the book in our library, we display the book next to its pumpkin.
The Pumpkin Patch
Classes like to tour our storybook pumpkin patch during their library visits, watching it grow more pumpkins day by day. Our students can bring in a pumpkin any time before the take home day (typically October 31). We have beautiful, student-created, reading-centered fall decorations, without any reference to Halloween.
When students pick up their pumpkins to take them home, I give them a spirit stick from Spirit Monkey. It looks like they’ve already sold out of their pumpkin patch spirit sticks for this year, but they’ve got lots of cute reading themed spirit sticks like these!
image courtesy of Spirit Monkey
A Freebie for You
I’ve posted my flier as a freebie for you in my TPT store here.
You can just fill in the dates that work for you, copy this flier, and watch a storybook pumpkin patch grow in YOUR school library! Happy reading!
Wow. You must work in a very affluent area. Asking my students to purchase a pumpkin and decorations would be considered completely “culturally insensitive” as only a small percentage of families would be able to make such purchases without it affecting their weekly budget. However, it’s an adorable idea. I think I will ask local farmers to see if we could get small pumpkins donated and then groups of students could work on this activity during library time.
Julie,
I would not say we are in an affluent area–our school is about two-thirds free and reduced lunch. Many of our students buy a fake pumpkin at the Dollar Tree (for $1), then decorate it with items they find around the house. The storybook pumpkin patch gives our families the opportunity to show off their fun and creativity without spending a lot of money. Some teachers bring a pumpkin to school and the students decorate it together as a class.
Thanks for your comment!
Cari
Thanks for sharing. Love this idea!!
My students are excited about doing this! Many are going to the pumpkin patch this week and will use their pumpkins that they get at the pumpkin patch.
What do you give for prizes?