Pumpkin Patch

We began by talking about pumpkins and discussing their traits and how there are many different looking pumpkins. We then looked at some pictures that showed a wide variety of pumpkins (shape, size, color...) The students then created their own pumpkin patches. They first drew and colored their pumpkins on a white sheet of paper, then cut them out and pasted them onto the green sheet of construction paper. They then decorated the background. This is a great lesson for teaching space, as the pumpkins can be layered to show depth.

Resist Jack-O-Lantern

For this project, we began by talking about faces and their features. We then transitioned into faces on jack-o-lanterns. I showed them some examples on the board of how to make one look happy, sad, scary, silly, etc... We then drew our jack-o-lanterns on 8"x8" squares of watercolor paper using orange and yellow crayons. The class then used dark watercolors (black, blue, purple) to paint over the face. They were so amazed by how the crayon created a resist. They all turned out very neat, as they showed such good contrast and made the pumpkins seem to glow.

Line Leaves

This project is great for a lesson on line and it looks great when it's complete. Simply sketch out leaves in pencil and then go over the lines in marker without coloring the outline of the leaves. Erase the pencil and you're done! Encourage students to overlap some some of the leaves and fill the whole page.