The social context allows students to think out loud, which, in turn, provides an opportunity to think not only about the ideas involved, but also about writing itself (Daiute & Dalton, 1993; Dale, 1994b). . . . Not only can other students learn new writing strategies by listening to their peers, but students can find solutions they did not even know they had by listening to themselves. (7)

• record factual information about what they observe.
• engage in the writing process by helping to contributing to the class text.
• sequence events involved in a classroom activity.
• share and present their observations in a class book.

• Chart paper or poster board, markers
• Pumpkin carving tools
• Pumpkin Observation Handout
• Sample Class Book – Our Class Pumpkin
• Handout listing Web Resources
• Extension Activities Handout
• (optional) camera
• Pumpkin Carving Sequencer
• Virtual Pumpkin
• Pumpkin Simulator
• Materials to publish the story:
  • ReadWriteThink Printing Press, paper, markers, crayons
    OR
  • Paper, markers, crayons, and relevant pictures
    OR
  • PowerPoint software, Use of Multimedia in the Classroom, and online tutorial for using PowerPoint

• Compile group writing materials.
• If desired, you make take photos of the pumpkin at various stages of the activities then use those photos to illustrate your class book.
• Make copies of Pumpkin Observation Handout, Handout listing Web Resources, and Extension Activities Handout.
• Familiarize yourself with PowerPoint, including adding graphics and movement, using the online tutorial for using PowerPoint.
• Test the ReadWriteThink Printing Press, Pumpkin Carving Sequencer, Virtual Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Simulator on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the correct plug-ins installed. You can download the plug-ins from the technical support page.
• Note that the Pumpkin Simulator should only be used under adult supervision as other games and interactives on the site are not appropriate for the classroom.

1. Begin the session by asking students to brainstorm a list of things that they know about pumpkins. Write their responses on the board or on chart paper.
2. Share the Our Class Pumpkin as an example book on pumpkins.
3. Explain that you are going to create a your own class book on pumpkins, describing your class project of exploring a pumpkin and making a jack-o-lantern.
4. Display your class pumpkin, and generate discussion by asking the students to observe the pumpkin before it is cut.
5. On chart paper, record student observations as they respond verbally. Encourage students to respond in complete sentences. For example, "The pumpkin is orange." If desired, write the students’ names by the sentences they compose.
6. Remind the students that when they observe and describe, they should use their senses at each of the following steps in the process: before carving, after looking inside of the pumpkin, and after the jack-o-lantern is finished:
   
   • What does the pumpkin look like?
   • What does the pumpkin feel like?
   • Does the pumpkin have a smell?
   • Can you hear anything?
     
     
7. Cut the top off the pumpkin, and show the students the inside of the pumpkin.
8. Again, on chart paper, record student responses using their senses to prompt observations:
   
   • What does the pumpkin look like?
   • What does the pumpkin feel like?
   • Does the pumpkin have a smell?
   • Can you hear anything?
     
     
9. Clean the insides out of the pumpkin, keeping the seeds for a math lesson later, if desired.
10. Prompt the students to talk about the size, smell, and color of the seeds and the interior of the pumpkin.
11. Draw the face on the pumpkin and cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth to create the jack-o-lantern.
    
    
• Swan Pumpkin Farm offers some ideas and templates for carving pumpkins.
• The Virtual Pumpkin or Pumpkin Simulator sites can be used as a pre carving planning tool.
  
  
12. Record the information, on chart paper, that the students generate as they observe the jack-o-lantern after it is carved. Older students may record their own observations using the Pumpkin Observation Handout.
13. Review the sentences that were generated by reading them aloud to the class. If labeled with students’ names, ask students to read their own sentences aloud.
14. Review the list of things that students brainstormed at the beginning of the class as well. Add or revise any of the information that students know about pumpkins based on this session.

1. Review information from the previous session by having students relate what happened when the pumpkin was carved.
2. Hang the three charts (before, during, and after) in the room so that students can see the sentences that they generated in the previous session.
3. Read student observations aloud from the chart paper (for instance, “Mary said, ‘The pumpkin’s inside was orange, just like the outside.’”).
4. Post a clean sheet of chart paper to record the details for the class book.
5. Ask students to create a class sequence of events, focusing on carving a jack-o-lantern.
6. Ask students to find sentences from the three charts while you record the story on the new sheet of chart paper.
7. Use class discussion patterns like these to evoke student responses:
   
   
   • Who can give me a really good sentence to begin our story about carving the class jack-o-lantern? What did we do in class yesterday? “Yesterday our class made a jack-o-lantern.”
   • What did we do first to the pumpkin? (This is a good sequencing lesson, also.) “First we looked at the outside of the pumpkin.”
   • Now someone find a good sentence from our sheets that describes what we observed about the pumpkin. “The pumpkin had a stem on the top. It was part of the vine.”
   • “Mary, find another observation sentence that you want to put in our story that uses another of our senses other than sight? “The pumpkin was smooth, not bumpy at all.”
   • Now what was the second step we took in making a jack-o-lantern?
     
     
8. If desired, use think-aloud strategies to explain the decisions that you’re making as you work:
   
   
   • What would make a good title?
   • I am going to put a period here because that is the end of Joe’s sentence.
   • Watch this . . .I am going to space over or indent because this is my first sentence in my paragraph.
   • Oh, I am going to be sure to spell pumpkin correctly, p-u-m-p-k-i-n.
   
   Incorporate student observations into the sequenced story.
9. Read the finished story aloud to the class.
10. Ask if the students want to add or take anything out, and make the requested changes.
11. Explain that during the next class session, students will finish their work on the class book, providing more details based on the way that you have decided to publish the book.
    

Before the next class session, prepare the class book, according the one of the options below:

• Using the ReadWriteThink Printing Press or a word processor
  1. Take the group-written sequence of events and divide the story so that a sentence or two appears on each page. Ideally, individual students or student pairs will each have a page to work with in the next session. Alternately, students can create variations in small groups, with each group creating original illustrations.
  2. Type the sentences on the pages, leaving the bulk of the page for students to illustrate.
  3. To focus students on textual clues later in the lesson, do not number the pages of the book that they will illustrate. You may, however, wish to make a copy for yourself with the sentences in the original order that students composed.
  4. Print the pages so that students can illustrate the pages in class.
  5. Gather additional materials for students to illustrate the books (markers, crayons, images from magazines to cut and paste, photos of the events, etc.).
     
     Note: You can also handwrite the sentences on sheets of paper.
     
     
• Using PowerPoint software
  1. Review the Use of Multimedia in the Classroom and the online tutorial for using PowerPoint.
  2. Take the group-written sequence of events, and create a PowerPoint presentation from the story that the students generated.
  3. Illustrate the story with clip art or digital camera pictures of each stage of the carving of the jack-o-lantern.
  4. Save the PowerPoint presentation as a PowerPoint Show. (File>Save As. Use the drop down arrow in the Save as type box and choose PowerPoint Show.) When the students click on the icon, PowerPoint will open in the full screen mode.
  5. Students can be taught to use the mouse to turn pages, or they can use the left and right arrows on the keyboard.
  6. Name the PowerPoint Show with a name the students will recognize. Leave the icon on the desktop, or create a folder to hold all the electronic books that the class will create throughout the year.
  7. If desired, print copies of the slide show for students to decorate further.
  8. Technology variations:
     1. Take digital pictures of the pumpkin carving process.
     2. Put each picture on a PowerPoint slide.
     3. Project the image on a screen, or gather students around the computer.
     4. Have the students generate the story from the digital images on each slide.
     5. You can also record your own or students voices reading each slide, making the book a read-along computer center.
        

1. Share the pages of your class book with students. If you have created the PowerPoint version of the book, skip to #8 below.
2. If desired, divide students into pairs for small groups.
3. Distribute the book pages that you prepared prior to the class along with the classroom supplies for illustrating the book.
4. Ask students to create illustrations for each page that show the events related to the sentences on that page.
5. As you divide pages among students be sure to read the sentences aloud to students.
6. Circulate among students as they work, read the sentences on the pages to help individual students with their illustrations.
7. Once students have finished with their illustrations, explain that now it is time to reassemble your pages into a class book.
8. Begin by reminding students of the idea of sequence and the before-during-after order of events from the previous session.
9. Display the Pumpkin Carving Sequencer and with students’ assistance organize the tiles into the correct order. Take advantage of the opportunity to reinforce text markers (e.g., “next” or “finally”) that can help you understand how to arrange the events.
10. If you created the PowerPoint version of the book, you can conclude the session by rereading the class book or moving on to one of the extensions.
11. If you created the paper-based version of the book, ask students to help you put the pages into order, based on the information in the story and the pictures on each page—you might arrange the pages on the classroom floor or a large table.
12. Once students have finished arranging the pages, read the finished story aloud.
13. Ask students whether all of the parts of the book are in the right order. Make any adjustments if necessary and bind your book as desired (e.g., stapling the pages together.
14. If desired, you can move on to one of the extensions or allow students more time to practice sequencing skills with the Pumpkin Carving Sequencer.

• Math, Cooking, and Online Research ideas handout
  
  
• Use the Circle Plot Diagram Tool to describe the life cycle of a pumpkin.
  
  
• The Stapleless Book, with six pages, can be used as a journal for the students to record observations from their senses, and also leave room for a title page, illustration or summary. Alternately, students could make individual books about the events using the Stapleless Book.
  
  
• Ask students to create a book cover or dust jacket for the class book using the Book Cover Creator. The tool does not include an option to save the work, so be sure that students do enough planning that they will be able to complete their covers in one session.

Online Virtual Pumpkin
http://www.benjerry.com/fun_stuff/online/virtual_pumpkin/

Students can drag pieces of a pumpkin over to make their own jack-o-lantern online.

Pumpkin Simulator
http://www.flashplayer.com/games/pumpkinsimulator2003.html

Allows students to “carve” their own pumpkins and print out the design.

Pumpkin Circuit
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/go/page.cgi?p=print_lesson&d=0&ID=24

This classroom activity sets up pumpkin activities in five stations around the classroom. Students rotate through the session, exploring fictional and real pumpkins.

• Monitor student progress during the lesson through anecdotal note taking and kidwatching.
  
• If the extension activities are used, students can complete the recipe writing assignment or note cards, which can be assessed for accuracy and information gathered.
  
• As students decorate pages and organize the sequence of events, look for evidence that students understand the before-during-after structure used to order the book.
  
  

NCTE/IRA Standards

1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

7 - Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).