The Goodrich Way: Pumpkin Painting

This year in 2nd grade we have been heavily focused on ingraining a love of reading into our students. As 2nd graders, this is a year where they grow in leaps and bounds for their reading level. Most come in able to read picture books, and almost everyone leaves reading full length chapter books. Because of this, we spend A LOT of time exposing students to all different types of books in hopes that every child will discover a love of reading. Yesterday was Halloween, and since students were not here on the actual holiday, we did a bit of celebrating on Tuesday during reading time.

We started the day by having students reflect on who their favorite book character is. To do this, I used the Kagan structure Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up to discuss our favorite book character, and why we love them. After this, I brought students up to the carpet to share out our favorite characters. We brought our reader's notebook up to the front, and I gave students a few minutes to sketch out their favorite book character in their notebook.

Since the students were now engaged and excited about their characters, it was time to bring out the surprise. We each are going to paint a pumpkin to look like our favorite book character! I've never seen the students so excited! Each student returned back to their seat and got started painting their pumpkin by using their sketch in their notebook as a guide.

While this was a fun themed activity to celebrate the holiday, it was also an opportunity to get students excited about books and remind them how much they love the characters they read about. My favorite phrase that I use with my students is to "get lost in a book." I truly value reading, and one of my main goals for this year is to help my students learn to enjoy it as much as I do. My favorite part of the activity was that many students chose characters from books that I have read aloud in class, so it was nice to see that they truly value our reading time together as much as I do. And the best part of all of this? Every single 2nd grader passed their AR goal today! If we keep going on the path we're on, these students will leave 2nd grade all as little book worms.