How Do Pumpkins Grow? book

By Marty Britt

This is an integrated science and language arts lesson plan. Students will create individual books that illustrate how pumpkins grow.

Page contents

1. Learning outcomes
2. Teacher planning
   1. Time required for lesson
   2. Materials/resources
3. Pre-activities
4. Activities
5. Assessment
6. Supplemental information

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Learn more

• Learn more about English language arts, biology and life science, science, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• Read and sequence sentences which describe the growth of a pumpkin.
• Illustrate each sentence using a variety of art materials to construct an individual book.
• Label their illustrations and practice reading their books.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 hours

Materials/resources

• books on pumpkins and seeds:
  • Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall, Publisher: Scholastic; (September 1999) ISBN: 0590558498
  • Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington
  • The Seed Song by Judy Saksie, Publisher: Creative Teaching Press; (March 1995) ISBN: 0916119793
• orange construction paper cut into shapes of pumpkins
• light blue construction paper cut and pasted to form a six-by-thirty-six-inch strip (fold to form a accordion book with six pages)
• two pumpkin seeds per student
• small squares of green and orange construction or fadeless art paper
• small squares of yellow tissue paper to form plant flowers
• brown tempera paint
• green construction paper leaf and a foot of green curling ribbon for each student
• markers
• page of printed text for each student that can be divided into six sentence strips

Pre-activities

• Read stories about pumpkins.
• Discuss the life cycle of a pumpkin.
• Discuss vocabulary (seeds, soil, sprouts, leaves, and flowers).
• Dramatize the growth of a seed. Students start in a curled up position and gradually uncurl and stretch to “grow” as “sun and rain” are added.

Activities

1. Early in the day, have each student paint “soil” across the bottom section of the six-by-thirty-six-inch strip of light blue construction paper. Allow drying time.
2. Hand out the sheet with text for book and practice reading the copy.
3. Read first strip of text. Cut the first strip and paste it on the first page of book. Paste seed in “soil”. Discuss the spelling of the word “seed”. Label the seed.
4. Guide students through the next five pages. Page 2—paste seed in soil, draw and label sprout. Page 3—draw and label green leaves. Page 4—draw green leaves, make yellow flowers by scrunching small squares of yellow tissue, label yellow flowers. Page 5—draw green leaves, draw small green pumpkins, cut out, paste and label. Page 6—draw big orange pumpkins, paste and label. Add green leaves.
5. Cut out two orange construction paper pumpkins for each student. Paste on a green construction paper leaf and ribbon curl.
6. Write the title of book “How Do Pumpkins Grow?” on each book along with each student’s name.
7. Practice reading books.

Assessment

Listen to each student read his/her book.

Ask each student to explain how pumpkins grow. Check order of stages of growth.

Supplemental information

Text for How Do Pumpkins Grow? book:

• Plant the pumpkin seed in the soil.
• The rain and the sun make the seed sprout.
• Soon the sprout grows into a plant with green leaves.
• Then yellow flowers grow on the plant.
• Next small, green pumpkins begin to grow.
• Finally, there are big, orange pumpkins.