Kids' Pumpkin Projects: Planting & Harvest Fun - Softcover

Deanna F Cook

Kindergarten-Grade 4-Everything readers ever wanted to know (and more) about pumpkins and related projects is cheerfully described and illustrated here. Organized around the seasons, the book includes basic gardening skills and encourages the use of a journal. Throughout, suggestions for recording data, drawing pictures, writing poems and observations, and pasting pictures in the journal are given. Many of the activities are standard fare-carving jack-o'-lanterns and making pie-but there are plenty of surprises: how to grow a silly-shaped pumpkin, create unique scarecrows and T-shirts, and make pumpkin-seed soap. Tucked throughout are bits of lore (mostly Native American) and traditional stories. The author gives suggestions for a carnival with directions for games and cites passages from several of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books that refer to a pumpkin tea party and drying this fruit for food. Ample black-and-white line drawings feature children involved in each project. The pages are pleasantly arranged and bordered with vine details. Recipes and other directions are clearly presented, and, in general, the projects are manageable for school-age children or younger with supervision. Although it is unlikely that a single child will tackle all or even most of the projects, there is much that will be valuable to parents and teachers who are looking for both traditional and fresh ideas.
Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
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