I found this project a few years ago, and have tried it with three first grade classes now. 🙂 Last fall must have been a busy time in my life because the 2017 version of this project did not make it to our blog. 😦 Oh well–here’s another iteration of this awesome project, which is a great combo of fall, pumpkins and books!
As with the last times we’ve done it, we started with the explanation, and this picture:
We talked about the possibilities for books and characters we’d use and made one really important rule: you can’t do anything in this example. :). Â As you might be able to tell, these are many of our favorite characters and EVERYONE would want to do them. Â This challenges them to think “outside the book” so to speak, and not just copy someone else’s idea.
Kids had time to check out our book wall (another GREAT reason to display them low for all to see!), and shared their book choice (either from one we’ve read or one they’ve read or just love).
After their books were chosen, and Ms. Turken and I had given them their assignment (with the idea of trying to make sure all our our lanterns were different), they were to draw their plan, including a list of materials they would need to complete their pumpkin. Â Learners shared their plans with us (and each other) via Seesaw. Â Here are some of them:
Once everyone had brought in their pumpkins (plus some extras via some very generous families!), we finally got busy with the decorating!
We were finally ready to share our creations after we’d gotten our displays together–including a picture of our book and a recording of who our character was and why we’d chosen them (can you say “thank you KSD for the fact that we are 1:1 with iPads? Â WE are able to do SO MANY GREAT THINGS because of that!). Here’s what a few of those looked and sounded like:
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item?item_id=item.c8be299e-c721-4fc6-8463-65c4eca4ba4d&share_token=GyCE9SRYRAKGf1h0kJOKyA&mode=embedhttps://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item?item_id=item.3c4b043f-18ca-416e-8d76-38939cc30327&share_token=VkxDiFNgSnayOixC9pn_6Q&mode=embed
We set up our Literary Lanterns and our iPads so that as kiddos from the other classes came through to see our gallery they could listen and look at our thinking. Â We also had a chance to go through and view our own class’ creations during the gallery walk. Â What a great end to a great Friday morning around Robinson school!
Ok, one last little slide show. :). Here’s a closer look at our creations! (It seems now that I’ve missed a few, but I will add them as soon as I get back to school!)
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 