Writing: How to Carve a Pumpkin

Hey everyone! It has been way too long since my last blog post. For the past two weeks, I have been giving assessments, and then grading those assessments. Now, I actually have this whole week off for Fall Break, so I get time to blog, work on report cards, and create some more Teachers Pay Teachers products. These last few weeks have had a lot of really fun events! For now, I wanted to share the pumpkin carving writing that we did last week. My teammate found the activity, and honestly I am not sure where she got it. I think that it may have been a freebie. If anyone knows, let me know because I would love to give credit to whomever created this.

First, I had the students write their own paper on how to carve a pumpkin. We have been learning about time and order words, so this was a great activity to review. Once they were finished, I picked a few of their papers, and had them read me the directions. I tried to follow their directions, but they quickly realized that they hadn't been specific enough when I tried to carve the eyes with my finger, or to scoop out the insides without cutting off the top. We decided that we needed to try again, one step at a time.

As we discussed the steps needed to carve a pumpkin, I actually carved the pumpkin in front of them. There were a few students who had never seen a pumpkin carved before, so it was a great experience for them.

A word of caution: make sure that you have a good quality pumpkin carving knife that is long enough. Mine broke in front of my students, and then I heard one child say, "Mrs. Berga, are you bleeding?" Yep, I sure was. I definitely sliced my finger. Lessons never go exactly as you planned, but after putting on a band aid, we were able to finish carving the pumpkin with a different knife.

 We started our writing together, but had to finish on another day because we ran out of time. If you plan to do a project like this, I would plan it out over two days. I think that the final product turned out adorable, and the students now have a better grasp on "how to" write a "how to" paper.

 One last random thing: my students found a grasshopper outside of our classroom. Since we study insects at the end of the year, I have a little cage that we use for praying mantises. I took the cage outside and caught the grasshopper. The students quickly named him "Alex" (I don't know why), and they had so much fun taking care of him and studying him over the course of the week. We let him go on Friday. Don't you love the random unplanned parts of teaching?

Happy teaching!