Make Pumpkins for Your Favorite Book Characters

This is a great idea for decorating a classroom for Halloween or encouraging a love of reading at home.

These book character pumpkins from Our Whimsical Days are mostly pretty easy to make with some paint and cardboard, but they are so cute and kids will love them.

I particularly like Pete the Cat, Skippyjohn Jones and Arthur, but they’re all really cute.

Our local library did something even easier by cutting out silhouettes of different book characters (the Cat in the hat, the mouse from the “If you give a mouse…” book series, things like that) and pasted them onto pumpkins. No paint required!

Do you decorate the classroom for Halloween or use books as a theme for decor? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: from Shutterfly/Pinterest via Our Whimsical Days.]

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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