Oodles of Pumpkins

How did jack-o'-lanterns become Halloween symbols? Use Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils to "carve out" a contemporary version of these traditional orange delights.

• 1.

  If possible, begin your pumpkin project in the spring, when fields of pumpkins are being planted. Every week or two, visit the fields to see how the vines, blossoms, and then pumpkins are growing. Make sketches of the changes (size, color, shape) you see with Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils.

• 2.

  Find out how Halloween and its pumpkin customs originated. For hundreds of years on All Hallows Eve, the Irish hollowed out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets. They placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits.

• 3.

  On paper, use your erasable colored pencils to draw a field full of large pumpkins. Color in the colorful pumpkins.

• 4.

  Erase jack-o'-lantern faces or other designs inside your pumpkins. Use your imagination to make each one unique.

• 5.

  Color in a night sky with your erasable colored pencils. Then erase sections to show ghosts, stars, and a moon in the sky. Color in erased areas. Complete your drawing by adding vines and soil around your pumpkins. Happy Halloween!

Benefits

• Students document plant growth in a pumpkin patch from seeding time to harvest to learn how these interesting melons are grown.
• Students research the origins and traditions of Halloween, some of which began in ancient Ireland.
• Students draw their own fields of jack o' lanterns.

Adaptations

• Provide younger children and students with special needs samples of different sizes, colors, and shapes of pumpkins to encourage variety in their drawings.
• Draw and cut out jack-o-lanterns in various sizes and shapes. Use them for fall window decorations.
• Create unusual greeting cards with erasable colored pencils. Color the entire card, then erase your message.