Pumpkin Characters Revealed.....

I'm linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness for:

In my classroom, I do the annual pumpkin project where students turn a pumpkin into a storybook character. They work on reading their story and coming up with character trait inferences. They then do an oral presentation on what type of person they think their character is and whether or not they would like to be friends with them.

Yesterday, my kids worked with partners to create invitations to hand out to other teachers and administrators to come and view our 'pumpkin gallery'. I didn't tell them what to write, but they brainstormed together possible ideas of things they should include into their invitation.All of the invitations were so cute. Here are a few of them in the making..unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the final products.

 It was a bit of a last minute idea that I used as a time filler, but it worked out being great. The teachers enjoyed having a formal invitation and it was great to have them work together to create the invitation, decide what information to include and then going back to make sure it is detailed and descriptive enough for others to understand what our gallery showing is about. I think that in the future, we will definitely do this again :)

It's always exciting because each year I have NO IDEA what each child's project is going to look like. We invite all of the administration and at least one class from each grade level. Some of my girls come early each morning to help me out with things. Two of my students created a poster to display outside of our classroom welcoming the others to our Pumpkin Gallery.

The kids set up their desks with their projects, reports, and books out on display. We had TONS of visitors throughout the morning. The kids got a bit restless but overall, they were really proud of all the hard work they did and appreciated all the praise and excited faces from all of the other children.
Here are some of the pumpkins that were brought in..

Pinkalicious!

The Little Prince

Da Big Kahuna

Wilbur! Look how cute..this student even put the web that says 'some pig!' How creative :)

Roderick from Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Merlin

Happy

This is the Plumeria Princess



Overall, our Halloween day in school was a pretty mellow day since most of the day we were showcasing our work. The students then did oral presentations as they shared about their character and book they read. Today, they brought in some skittles and M&M's and we did some multiplication and division work with them.

I was so glad that I saved this for the end of the day...I made the mistake of allowing them to eat their candy once they were all done with their assignment. I could visually see them getting a sugar high. They started smiling a lot, wiggling in their chair, licking their lips, humming. HAHA I just sat in my chair and watched as I could see them getting crazier and crazier (yet trying to contain it because they knew there were still in class) and I was counting down the minutes till the bell rang! :P Hope you had a smooth week!! I took the day off tomorrow because I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Yesterday, my throat was killing me but today it's a little better..I'm really stuffy and starting up a cough. I'm hoping that I can use the next 3 days to catch up on the 3 classes that I'm taking...and finish at least one of my portfolios! Wish me luck!!