Pumpkins

A pumpkin is a fruit that grows on a vine like squash. Pumpkins can be orange, white, yellow, or red. They can also be bumpy or smooth, large or small, long or round. Each year there is a new crop of pumpkins. Pumpkins begin as seeds then turn into a seedling with leaves, a flower and tendrils. Throughout the summer the vines, tendrils, and leaves grow and tangle together. Underneath the big leaves little pumpkins grow. The leaves are like a big umbrella, they keep the sun off and protect the pumpkins. It takes special weather for pumpkins to grow - too much rain rots them and too much sun withers the vines. Farmers know when it's time to harvest the pumpkins because their vines turn brown. The whole process takes about four months.

In the fall people love to do different things with pumpkins. Some people like to cook pumpkins and make pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. People also love to go pumpkin picking. For Halloween, people scoop out and carve pumpkins to create Jack-o-Lanterns or use them for decoration.

Here is a link to a recipe for pumpkin pie as well as a link to a local spot for pumpkin picking.

• Pumpkin Pie Recipe
• Pumpkin Picking and Other Fall Activities on Long Island

Vocabulary:

1. vine (noun) - plant with long, thin stems that grows along the ground or climbs up things
2. squash (noun) - fruit like a pumpkin
3. crop (noun) - food grown in one season
4. seeds (noun) - part of plant that can grow into a new plant
5. tendrils (noun) - long, thin part of a plant stem that grabs and curls around things to help the plant climb or spread
6. umbrella (noun) - something that covers or protects from above
7. protect (verb) - to cover or shield from injury or danger
8. rot (verb) to decay, spoil
9. wither (verb) - to dry up and shrink
10. harvest (verb) - gathering of a crop

Fill-in the Blank:

1. When it rains out my mom always uses an _________ so she doesn't get wet.
2. In the spring we planted _______ so we could grow sunflowers.
3. Grapes grow on a __________.
4. You have to drink milk by its expiration date so it does not ______.
5. I don't like getting flowers as a gift because they ________ and die quickly.
6. Next year there will be a new _______ of pumpkins.
7. Football players wear a helmet to ________ their head.
8. A ____ is very similar to a pumpkin.
9. September is a time when a lot of farmers ______ their crops.
10. The plant grew long ________ from its stem.

Grammar Point: Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describes other words such as nouns. Adjectives provide information about the qualities of something.

Ex: asleep, boring, determined, unhappy, old, funny, big

"Pumpkins can be orange, white, yellow, or red. They can also be bumpy or smooth, large or small, long or round. "

Write a song or poem describing something or someone you love using at least 6 adjectives.

Information in this blog was adapted from the book:

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin by Ron Findell and Patricia Walsh