30 Reasons to Celebrate Reading (in pictures)

Every fall our Media Center is transformed into a whimsical pumpkin patch displaying “Literacy-O-Lanterns” from books our students love.  This year I thought I’d introduce the new characters along with some past pumpkins as well.

Painting the pumpkins is fun, but the thing that I’m most excited about is how our students are absolutely crushing creativity with their pumpkin designs.  Our entire 3rd grade team is in on the fun…that means more than 150 pumpkins are now on display.  As you can probably imagine, all of the pumpkins are pretty awesome.  I’m sharing a few student projects that used different media to capture the personality of their respective characters below.

The Lorax by Hannah

Geronimo Stilton by Ashton

Harry Potter by Kruthia

A few educators have inquired about how we do this…so here’s a final picture that pretty much sums it up!  The crop of characters always starts by drawing a Sharpie outline on a pumpkin.  The outline is then painted with acrylic paint.  It’s fun to see all of the pumpkins scattered throughout the Media Center and kids LOVE them too.  The overarching goal is to celebrate reading and grow a culture of literacy.

Be sure to check out Twitter and search for the hashtag #LiteracyOLanterns to see some additional pumpkins from students in other schools.