(bright upbeat music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our Pre-K and TK classroom.

My name is Miss Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

Let me see if I can guess your special letter.

So, let's see.

I have my board here; I'm gonna make a letter.

I'm gonna use a big curve to make the letter C. Is that your special letter?

Oh, it's not mine, Mine is L. L for Lara.

But, we have so much planned today.

I'm so excited you're with me.

Today is day two of the five days that we're going to be together this week.

So let me add a magnet to our 10 frame, maybe I'll add it down here to make the number 2.

This week, we're learning all about pumpkins.

Yay!

You might see them when you're grocery shopping, or you might go to the pumpkin patch and see pumpkins.

So I hope that you learn a thing or two from our time together.

So we're gonna start off our day with a little pumpkin finger play.

You're actually gonna need your five pumpkin fingers, so get your five pumpkin fingers out.

And you're gonna need your gate, so you can make a gate like this.

Ooh, I look so proper.

Make a gate and your five pumpkins, and remember, you're gonna need your spooky face.

So, here we go.

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh, my, it's getting late."

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

Ooh, and the third one said, "But, we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

And the fifth one said, "But I'm ready for some fun."

Here comes the spooky face.

Ooh, went the wind.

And out went the light, and the five little pumpkins, they rolled and rolled and rolled out of sight.

What do you think?

Do all pumpkins roll?

I think you're gonna find in our story that not all pumpkins do.

But let's see what letter Miss Maria left us that's gonna give us a clue.

(doorbell rings) So here we go.

So here's our letter, like we always do, and this is gonna help us practice how to read.

So remember when we read, we start from the left and go to the right.

♪ When I read books ♪ ♪ I read left to right ♪ ♪ Left to right ♪ ♪ Left to right ♪ ♪ When I read books ♪ ♪ I read left to right ♪ ♪ To help me be a strong reader ♪ All right, let's see what our letter says.

"Dear Miss Lara, How do pumpkins become pumpkins?"

Ooh, do you remember, we talked about that yesterday?

They start as a little seed, and they develop into a sprout, and they sprawl into a vine, grow flowers, become a tiny green pumpkin, then a big fat orange pumpkin.

That's called its lifecycle.

"Do they start out orange and round?"

No, they start off as seeds, don't they?

"Do pumpkins grow on trees?"

Do they?

Have you ever seen a pumpkin tree?

Ooh, what if there was a pumpkin tree and those big round pumpkins fell on your head?

I'm glad there's not a pumpkin tree.

"How long does it take for pumpkins to grow?"

Remember, it takes about four months.

And yesterday we learned that the pumpkins in our last story grow round.

But did you know there's a story of a pumpkin that was different?

Let's see if Miss Maria left it in here.

The story is called "Spookley The Square Pumpkin."

Have you ever heard of such a thing?

A square pumpkin?

Now, here he is in the front cover, and it looks like he's sitting on his vine, and there are some yellow flowers.

Those, remember, dry up to become our green pumpkins.

This story was written by Joe Troiano, and illustrated by Susan Banta.

Remember, the writer is also called the author.

That's the person who writes the words, and the illustrator draws the pictures.

So let's read the story of "Spookley the Square Pumpkin."

"One day in the pumpkin patch, the strangest little pumpkin hatched.

Spookley wasn't like his friends, where they had curves, he had ends."

So look at all his friends are all round, and he's all square with edges.

"Spookley was different.

He was odd.

He was rare.

Spookley the pumpkin wasn't round.

He was square."

So look at him square right here.

And if you can tell on the expression, he is sad about being square.

Sometimes being different is no fun.

But we'll see at the end, what happens.

"While the round pumpkins had fun rolling along, poor Spookley sat there shaped all wrong.

He tried and tried with all his might, but he couldn't budge, he just sat tight."

Now, I want you to think about why Spookley doesn't roll.

Would it have something to do with his edges?

Can square things roll?

Hmm.

Good thing you can investigate like a scientist, huh?

Let me know if you find the answer.

"The other pumpkins teased him because he was square.

Spookley wished he was round and could roll everywhere."

So the other pumpkins were making fun of him.

"Ha, ha, Spookley, he's so square."

Is that a kind thing to do?

How would you feel if someone was making fun of you?

Oh, that does not feel good.

"That is until one night when they all discovered it's fine to be round when the weather is fair, but there are times it's better to be a square.

Halloween was just a day away when a mighty storm blew across the bay.

(Miss Lara blowing) It tossed around pumpkins to and fro."

(Miss Lara blowing) So they're rolling and rolling, just like in our song, "It snapped their vines, then off they go, bouncing left, slamming right, banging, bashing, what a sight."

So you can look at the weather back here.

It's all stormy and there's lightning, and the pumpkins are rolling away.

"Spookley sat there filled with fright, but glad to be a square that night."

So there's Spookley.

Look it.

Oh no, there's a fence here.

And, look, if they're rolling, there's a hole here, so the pumpkins might fall into the ocean.

"Suddenly, the fence gave way.

Three pumpkins rolled out and into the bay."

Poor pumpkins.

"Spookley knew what must be done.

It was up to him.

He was the one.

He teetered, he tottered, he tipped, he tried.

He finally flipped and was on his side."

Look at that.

"Again, he tipped, again he flopped, again, he flipped, and then he stopped right in the gap where the fence had snapped.

He blocked the way.

The hole was capped."

So you remember there was a hole here, and if Spookley hadn't been there, what would have happened to the other pumpkins?

"All the pumpkins shouted, 'Hooray!'

Spookley, the square pumpkin had saved the day.

Then a pumpkin hit him with a whack.

He thought his shell would start to crack.

Then another one hit him with a thump, and another one with a smack."

They're all piling on top of Spookley.

"Then one by one, a ton of pumpkins piled on the stack with a bang and a bash and a crunch and a crash.

And then it all went black."

Where is Spookley in all this mess?

"At dawn when the storm had stopped, the farmer came out and checked his crop.

He picked his pumpkins up one by one, and laid them out in the warm dry sun.

And when the last one was moved away, the farmer could see what had saved the day.

An odd-shaped pumpkin, short and dense was wedged against the broken fence."

Who was it?

Right here.

It was Spookley, that's right.

He was square and saved the day.

"His shell was bruised, it's stem was too.

But there was brave little Spookley, sitting straight and strong and true.

Right then and there, the farmer knew of all the seeds he'd ever sown, Spookley's were the most special that he'd ever grown."

So I want you to make a prediction.

What is the farmer going to do with Spookley's seeds?

Do you think he's going to eat them?

Throw them away?

Hmm.

"And the next year, when it was time to sow, he sowed those seeds in every row.

He watered and weeded and watched them grow, and oh, that morning about mid-June, when the pumpkin patch began to bloom, there were tiny pumpkins everywhere, hundreds and hundreds, most of them square."

Look it, everywhere.

And they're all different colors, pink, and purple, and even blue.

But, "Some were cubes, and some were rectangular, some were flat and others triangular."

This one looks like Swiss cheese, which always makes me laugh.

"There was a bed of bright red ones and two rows of blue.

There were polka dotted pumpkins and rainbow ones too.

There were thousands of colors and hundreds of shapes.

Oh, what a garden variety that makes.

Now every year on Halloween, Spookley's patch is quite a scene.

People come from far and near to see what wonders grew that year.

They stop, they gawk, they gaze, they stare, then they pick up a pumpkin that's round, triangular, and perfectly, of course, square."

Last page.

"Now, you know the story of how Spookley grew.

Maybe someday, you'll tell someone too, and they'll go tell someone, who go tell another, and maybe one day we'll all discover, you can't judge a book or a pumpkin by its cover."

Look at Spookley with all his pumpkin shaped friends there at the end.

So what did you think of the story of "Spookley the Square Pumpkin?"

I thought for sure that he was gonna be cut up into pumpkin pie for being different.

But in the end, the farmer saw that being different is what made him special, and he actually saved the day.

Hooray for Spookley!

Now, I love reading stories to you, but I want to teach you how to read too so that you can read me stories.

So we're gonna work on a foundational skill, and that's retelling the story, to see what you remember about it.

So here is our chart that's gonna help us remember.

It says Spookley right on top.

Now you'll remember retelling a story is an important skill.

♪ When I retell a book to a teacher or friend ♪ ♪ I retell the beginning and the middle and the end ♪ ♪ First, next, last are the words that help me out ♪ ♪ When I retell a book, I tell what it's about ♪ So let's take a look.

Spookley, the main character who the story was about, is a square pumpkin, named Spookley.

Now what made him different?

Do you remember?

That's right.

He had edges, and all the other pumpkins had curves.

And did the other pumpkins like him?

No.

They said, "Ha, ha, you're square.

You have edges."

And that made Spookley feel sad, probably.

When you think about it, how would you feel?

And then that night there was a big storm, and the wind came, (Miss Lara blowing) and all the pumpkins started rolling away, except Spookley didn't roll, right, because he had edges.

And you'll discover, if you experiment, that things with edges don't roll easily.

So three pumpkins rolled out into the bay, into the water, and through the big hole.

But Spookley came in and saved the day.

He blocked that hole in the fence.

And then all the other pumpkins started piling up on top of him.

Then the farmer came and took all the pumpkins off and saw that Spookley was very special.

So he said, "Hmm, I'm gonna save your seeds and plant them for next year."

And that's what he did.

He planted all kinds of pumpkin seeds from Spookley, and got all kinds of different shaped pumpkins.

All right, so I love reading stories like this with you, but I love leaving you with a little project that you can connect to the story.

In this case, both our book and our song had rolling pumpkins in it.

So I thought it'd be fun to kind of create a little scene with some pumpkins and some paint.

So let's go over to our project place.

All right.

So here is kind of what we're working on.

I still have to add the pumpkins, and I thought we would do that together.

But this is our gate, or our fence.

Now you can take this a couple of ways.

In the beginning of our day, we're singing our five little pumpkin song, so you can make five little pumpkins sitting on a gate, or you can create the story of Spookley, by making square pumpkins right here, or adding some other pumpkins that are piled into a hole in the fence.

I think I'm going to make five little pumpkins sitting on the gate, because I love that finger play.

So for this activity, you're going to need some paper of different colors.

You're gonna need black, and green, and yellow for the moon.

You're also gonna need a white crayon if you wanna create some stars, some Popsicle sticks, some glue, and different color paints.

So, the paints I'm using are red, and yellow, white, and black.

And of course you need some scissors.

So you need quite a few things for this one.

All right, to start off, get your black paper out.

And of course, if you don't have black paper, just use any kind of paper.

How it looks not as important as the process of creating it.

So I'm going to create my fence first.

So I have my Popsicle sticks here.

Now, if you've ever been to a farm, the fence is kind of like a straight line, and then it has some pickets that go through it, and that's to help keep the animals inside.

So we're gonna recreate that fence, like you would find in an old farm.

So I have my first Popsicle stick, and I'm gonna add some glue to it.

Have you read the story of "Too Much Glue," about a little boy, who's a student, whose teacher tells him, "Don't add too much glue."

But he's like, "I need a lot of glue.

Glue is my favorite."

If you haven't read that story, check it out.

It's a great story for teaching children how to use glue, and also for teaching adults how to lighten up a little bit with their use of materials.

All right, so I'm sticking here, and then, hmm, this one's not gonna fit right over.

So I'm not gonna glue this piece.

I'm just gonna put two dots of glue on the ends, so I can connect it.

Let me add some glue there.

Dots.

All right, there's my first kind of fence part there.

Now I'm gonna do the same thing, add it to the bottom.

So I'm gonna add some glue in the stripe.

When I was in school, whenever we used this type of glue, it would make funny noises, and we would laugh and laugh.

(Miss Lara laughs) So, see if yours makes a funny noise.

All right, then we're going this way.

And now I'm gonna add my gate, kind of, pieces across this way.

See.

That's how I'm gonna create my gate.

Some I'm gonna add some glue here.

Now, you don't see a lot of gates anymore like you would in old farms, but like I said, they were used to keep the animals out, or in, depending on where you were standing.

The other day I went on a hike, and they had an electric fence to keep the animals in.

I don't think pumpkins would like to be on top of that.

Then you'd get fried pumpkin.

(Miss Lara laughs) Not very fun for the pumpkin.

All right, here is my fence.

And I'll show you in just a minute, how I used some brown paint to make it look older, and kind of scarier and spooky.

October is a spooky month after all.

Next thing I'm gonna do is add some stars.

Now, you can do your stars a couple of ways.

I'm gonna add mine with some edges.

Just like Spookley had edges, stars have edges too.

And then I'm gonna color it in.

So that's one way you can add a star.

You can also do it in one continuous line.

So there's one way.

So you can do it kind of like that.

That's a little harder if you're just learning how to make a star.

Another way that you can make a star, is just kind of do a circle, and kinda keep adding circles around.

And this is supposed to represent the light of the star.

So it'd look like that.

You can do it all kinds of ways.

You can mix it any way you would like.

I think I'm gonna mix mine up, and do some circles and some star like shapes, 'cause I think that kind of goes with our story.

It's a variety, which means many different kinds.

I'm gonna add one more here.

And our last step here, before I show you how we're gonna make our pumpkins and add our vines is to create a moon, because at night, I thought it'd be fun to create a scene at night, because it's just a little spookier.

So I have my yellow paper, and I'm gonna cut a circle.

All right, I'm gonna chomp all the way around using my helper hand.

And if your circle comes out looking like an oval, that's okay.

I always make my circles, and I have huge snake-like things at the end.

So maybe you too, if you're like me.

All right, then I'm gonna glue my moon in the center here.

And here is what my project is looking like so far.

So my five little pumpkins are left.

Now to make your five little pumpkins, I thought it'd be really fun to create different hues of orange.

So you can see, I have a very kind of true orange, kind of more brown, darker, and much lighter peach orange that you may not even be able see on camera.

So I'm gonna show you how I made those, and then we'll cut out and add our oranges.

So to make orange, you're actually gonna mix two primary colors.

You're gonna mix red, which I have here, and some yellow.

I'm gonna mix it and show you.

Here we go.

Mix it all up.

Are we getting an orange?

Now the red tends to be pretty powerful, so.

Ah, there it is.

There's my orange.

Maybe I'll add a little more yellow.

But another great way to create orange is actually not to use red, it's to use hot pink paint.

So if you happen to have hot pink and a little bit of yellow, that creates the best, most truest orange pumpkin color.

Okay, so here is my orange.

I'm just gonna take my paper here, and I'll show you kind of what I did.

So I just kind of painted my orange on like this into one little piece of it, because then we're gonna cut it out, and this is gonna be my orange here.

So there's one orange.

Now, if I wanted to lighten it up, what color might I use?

Some white, that's right.

So that's what I did.

I took a little bit of white, put it on the corner there, and mixed it with a little bit of orange.

Now for my teacher friends watching, this is the kind of activity that I would do in a center, and I would actually do a demonstration on color mixing and show students how to mix light and darker hues and value of the same color, and then give them just a little bit of some paint to paint on.

Ooh, it's almost looking like the same color, but it's a little bit lighter.

Now, what if I wanted to darken it?

What might I use?

Some black, that's right.

All right, so let me get some black in here, and I'm gonna go through the same process before I show you how I cut out my pumpkins.

So, the black is hard, because it really, look at that, it almost looks like really black.

You have to mix quite a bit of orange in there.

Mm-hmm.

All right, I'll show you, and actually get a little bit of a brown color.

And that's my tip.

You can use that brown color to paint your gate later, your fence.

Okay, so you can see, once you mix all your colors and have fun doing that, you're gonna get something that looks like this, and this is what we're going to use to cut out our pumpkins.

So I'm just gonna cut out some circles to make the pumpkin.

I want my pumpkins to be kind of big.

(scissors cutting) That'd be kind of fun.

You can have square pumpkins, triangle pumpkins.

I think I'm gonna make oval pumpkins.

So I'm gonna glue this one on, right down here, and go on to my next pumpkin.

All right.

Next one, oval, (scissors cutting) All the way down.

(Miss Lara laughing) This one's kind of an oddly shaped pumpkin, but those are my favorite.

Glue it on.

Two.

Now I need, I have two, I need five, so I need three more.

Now, here's one more.

(scissors cutting) And if I don't get to finish this with you, I'll show you what it looks like just with three or four pumpkins, and then you can finish it up and create five.

Now, one thing I'm not gonna get to do with you is add the faces or the jack-o-lantern of the pumpkin.

That'll be really fun.

If you get to do that, add some eyes and a smile.

Here's four.

And we can do one more.

Five.

We're gonna make this one the lightest pumpkin, and I'll show you what we end up with.

(scissors cutting) Okay, and of course, I'm gonna save my scraps, Who knows what those will become in a future project.

All right, here we go.

Now we have our five little pumpkins on our gate.

Whew!

Come on, little pumpkin, don't roll away yet.

Here we go.

And the next thing you can do is add some vines with some green paper, and I might go back and add some stems in there, so they look like real pumpkins.

And like I said, maybe I wanna make these jack-o-lanterns so they're extra scary.

I can't wait to see what your project turns out like.

Okay, well join me tomorrow for some more pumpkin fun, friends.

I hope to see you then.

Miss Lara sends you a big smooch, (Miss Lara blows kiss) and says goodbye for now.

(bright upbeat music)