Storybook Pumpkins

While we were at Market Street picking out the "perfect" jack-o-lantern pumpkin, the girls also picked out two smaller pumpkins for them to paint for their school's library "Storybook Pumpkins." This is Mrs. Keller's first year as our school's librarian and she told each class that she would give each student a small prize if they wanted to paint and decorate a pumpkin from their favorite book or story. These pumpkins would be displayed in the library until Halloween. At first, the girls weren't interested in participating, but I think once they visited the library and saw how many pumpkins there were, they both changed their minds. So, Olivia picked out a pie pumpkin and Sofia picked out a small decorative pumpkin and they both wanted to make dragons. Sofia explained that her dragon is from Harry Potter Book 4 and should be green, while Olivia just wanted a red dragon. I reminded her of the book "Not Your Typical Dragon" which is about a dragon that breaths everything but fire, including stuffed animals and marshmallows. It's really a sweet story, but I think the main dragon is actually green. Oh well!

After both girls were done cleaning out and carving their jack-o-lanterns, they immediately turned to painting their smaller pumpkins. Sofia painted hers, followed by Olivia. Once they were dry, Sofia moved inside with her green pumpkin and started drawing and designing the dragon's wings, painting a toilet paper roll to match the dragon's color, and figuring out a tail and eyes. She actually made and glued her entire dragon all by herself without any assistance from me or CK! She also did it pretty quickly! She insisted on making legs for it, which I tried to talk her out of, but once she made them and attached them, they really looked cute!

It was soon bedtime for the girls and Olivia's painted pumpkin hadn't been touched. I knew she would be upset in the morning when she saw Sofia's dragon done and her's not even started. So, I looked at Sofia's dragon to make the wings, tail and head and it turned out nearly as cute as Sofia's, although it took me forever! I couldn't get the stem off, so ended up whacking it with a hammer, which worked but removed a small chunk of pumpkin at the top. It started oozing, so I poured glue to cover the area thinking it would dry overnight. Unfortunately it didn't work and I knew that we weren't supposed to bring in a cut pumpkin since it starts to decay faster. Hopefully it won't be an issue! I kept working and found a sheet each of yellow, red and orange tissue paper and cut and added it to the dragon's mouths as fire. Sofia planned to add fire by using construction paper, but the dragon heads weren't glued on very well and I figured it would cause them to fall off, so decided to use tissue paper. They turned out so cute and I know Sofia was really proud to have made hers all by herself.

We headed to school a little early so we could drop off their pumpkins in the library and fill out the paper that described what book their pumpkins are from, and what the character does in the book. We added them to Mrs. Keller's collection of decorated pumpkins and I said goodbye to the girls so they could head off to class.

Sofia's drawing of her idea

Our little painter

The finished dragons

Olivia's dragon

Sofia's dragon