Silly Pumpkins: Just for Fun (or Fund-Raising)

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Pumpkins are the ultimate October icons -- the fruit of the month, if you will. (Yes! Pumpkins are a fruit.) Celebrate pumpkins with this fun activity for all grades.

Subjects: Arts & Humanities, Visual Arts

Grade Levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Objectives
Students will

• think creatively as they transform a plain pumpkin into a work of art.

Keywords
pumpkin, contest, fundraising, fund-raising, fund-raiser, PTO, painting, decorate, decorating, Halloween, fruit, fall, autumn, October, September

Materials Needed

• pumpkins of varying sizes
• paints and other art supplies

Procedure

In this lesson, students decorate pumpkins in fun or goofy ways. They might do the activity to decorate the classroom, just for fun, or to raise money for school activities. This activity could be turned into a contest, an auction, a roadside sale...

You probably don't want to involve students in carving pumpkins but that won't stop you from letting them have some fun by painting pumpkins or stenciling pumpkins (may require free registration).

Or how about these ideas?

• Assign each student the name of a member of the school staff and have the student decorate a pumpkin to look like that person. Aside from the obvious physical features, the student might incorporate symbols related to that person's job.
• Have students decorate their pumpkins as famous people in history.
• Emphasize the fact that a pumpkin is a fruit by painting/decorating or otherwise disguising pumpkins to look like other fruits.

Still looking for more pumpkin-decorating ideas? The following pages might inspire additional ideas. If you use this activity as a fund-raiser, each class might take on one of the following ideas as a class theme.

• Goofy Pumpkins 
• Ballplayer Pumpkin 
• A Family of Pumpkins 
• Pumpkin Pal 
• Veggie-Head Pumpkins 
• Witchy Pumpkins 
• Spellbound Pumpkin 
• Dressed-Up Pumpkins 
• Sequined-Striped Pumpkin 
• Sparkling Pumpkins 
• Snowman Pumpkin 
• Black Cat Pumpkin 
• Alien Pumpkin 
• Ghost Pumpkins 
• Unidentified Flying Pumpkins 

Turn This Activity Into a School Fund-Raiser
It's too late to plant a pumpkin garden in your schoolyard to raise your own pumpkins, but you can check with local food distributors about purchasing pumpkins in bulk for this activity. Once students have decorated their pumpkins, you might make arrangements to sell them at a local store, hold an auction and sale at the next PTO meeting, or set up shop in the schoolyard on a Saturday morning and sell students' decorated pumpkins to the entire community.

Pumpkin Decorating Contest
How about involving community members as judges in a pumpkin-decorating contest, then auctioning off the winning pumpkins? Because students will not be taking home their creations, you might want to present them with ribbons, certificates, and photos of their pumpkins.

More School Pumpkin Photos

• ESL Photo Gallery: Painting Our Pumpkins 

More Resources

Gourd and Pumpkin Painting 
Tips on painting pumpkins, storing pumpkins, more.

What Works: Paint Pumpkins 
Tips for a large-group painting effort.

Pumpkin Painting: Put Down That Knife! 
More simple ideas for creating a pumpkin work of art.

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