Pumpkins have Character Traits too!

I couldn't let the opportunity of decorating character pumpkins pass us by without tying it to our reading workshop lessons, which fit perfectly with what we'd been learning about character traits! We began exploring characters not just by what they look like, but by digging deeper to investigate through their actions, feelings, and thoughts.  After the students picked the character they'd like to decorate their pumpkin as, it was time for them to become character detectives.  They had to find at least three character traits for their character, and back it up with a piece of evidence from the book.  The examples they came up with were not only insightful, but in some cases very witty!  They typed their traits up in the app Pages and added both a picture of their pumpkins and an illustration they had made.  The best part about this project was how perfectly it combined our learning with good old fashioned Halloween fun.