Elementary Lesson Plan: Learn How Pumpkins Grow

Integrated Activities that Teach the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Plant

© Renee Carver

Sep 22, 2008

Share with children picture books that tell how pumpkins grow. Have children practice the reading skill of reading for a purpose and the critical thinking skill of discriminating between important and unimportant information. Then, have them explore art materials and demonstrate their understanding of the pumpkin life cycle by making an illustrated booklet about it.

Objectives

• Students will practice the reading skill of reading books for a purpose and the critical thinking skill of discriminating between important and unimportant information.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of how pumpkins grow by making an illustrated booklet that depicts the life cycle of pumpkin plant.
• Students will explore the use of different art media.

Reading for a Purpose: I'm a Seed

1. Display the cover of I'm a Seed by Jean Marzollo [Scholastic, Inc., 1996]. Discuss the picture and title. See if children can identify which seed is the pumpkin seed.
2. Tell children that sometimes readers read books for a purpose, or a particular reason. Explain that you will be reading this book to collect information about what happens to a pumpkin as it grows from a seed to a plant. Point out that some information is so important to know that you can't understand what is happening without it. Add that other information is interesting, but unimportant to know.
3. Read the book aloud once with children listening carefully. Then, reread the book, stopping from time to time so children can take notes about the changes the seed goes through as it turns into a plant.
4. Invite children to share their notes. Discuss as a class which bits of information from the book are important, and which are unimportant. Record important bits in a class list.

Reading for a Purpose: Collecting More Information

1. Provide children with copies of other books that discuss how pumpkins grow, such as Pumpkin Day! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace [Marshall Cavendish, 2002], From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer [HarperCollins Publishers, 2004], It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall [The Blue Sky Press, 1994], Patty's Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat [G.P. Putnam's Sons,1999], The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King [Dutton's Children's Books, 1990], and Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson [Tricycle Press, 1999].
2. Note that if you are only interested in learning how pumpkins grow, you don't need to read the parts of a book that talk about other things. Model how to flip through a book and skim for the specific information you seek.
3. Have children skim these books, take notes, share their notes with the class, and add any new important bits to the class list.
4. Work with children to turn the class list of important bits into an organized sequence of events describing how a pumpkin seed grows into a pumpkin plant.

Assessment: Make an Illustrated Booklet

1. Have children examine and discuss the art materials used to illustrate each of the books they have read. Discuss other media you might use to depict the life cycle of a pumpkin, such as a collage using real pumpkin seeds, leaves, and other parts.
2. Have children pick an art medium and create an illustrated booklet that depicts the stages of the pumpkin life cycle. (Older children might widen the focus of their booklet to cover the things a farmer does to care for the plant as it grows.)

Enrichment Activities

• Use the information in these books to help children plant and raise their own pumpkins. From time to time, have children write journal entries and either draw pictures or take photographs to chart the growth of their plants.
• Have children use graphic organizers to compare and contrast the marigold and the pumpkin that grow in I'm a Seed.

Using thinking and reading skills for a real and interesting purpose (learning about pumpkins) will motivate children to master these skills and use them when needed in the future. For other fall-related educational activities, try visiting a pumpkin farm through books, exploring how apples grow, or taking a nature walk.

Pumpkin Plant

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