Pumpkin Lapbook

Last week I wrote about our new use of lapbooks for homeschooling.  Lapbooks are definitely not a new concept, not even for us.  This is the first time I am using them specifically for homeschooling.

Our first lapbook for this year was all about pumpkins.  My daughter is on a Kindergarten level so tried to find activities appropriate for her level.  Finding items to add to lapbooks can be a lot of work and research, but it is also fun to see all the possibilities.


Here is the lapbook I did with my daughter along with the resources used;

For the front cover, I had Princess write "My Pumpkin Lapbook" on a piece of pumpkin shaped lined paper.  Below her title she wrote her name and date. The pumpkin paper was from here. I printed the page out and Princess wrote  on it, colored it and then cut it out all on her own.

Front Cover

On the inside, we pasted on a pocket envelope to hold small cards that showed the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Princess colored all the stages of the life cycle and them cut them out.

Pumpkin Life Cycle

 She now can remove all the pieces and put them in order while she explains the different stages to me.  We used the sequence cards found here.

 However, there are also some great photos that you can use for this activity as well found here.   I used the black and white drawings mainly because it allowed more interaction through the coloring and cutting.

Below the life cycle pocket we did a simple sizing activity of five pumpkins.  Princess sorted them in order of smallest to largest and then pasted them onto the paper after coloring and cutting them out.

 In the middle of the lapbook,  Princess colored a picture of a pumpkin and practiced some writing from page 5 from this Pumpkin resource set.

There are tons of other pages at this same site for a Pumpkin Lapbook so look through all of them.

Under that page is a maze featuring Clifford found here.

 Below that is the poem "Five Little Pumpkins".  I printed that from page 9 and 10 found here.

As the site suggested, I laminated the page and the pumpkins, cut out the pumpkins and attached Velcro so Princess could remove and count them.

On the right hand side, Princess practiced her handwriting with some copy work and also learned to draw a pumpkin all on her own.  We used pages 34-35 of Draw Write Now book 2. 

Under that is an envelope with a Happy Pumpkin Puzzle.

This is a very simple puzzle for a Kindergartner, but I wanted to include it because it allowed Princess to work on her cutting skills.  She colored in the picture, then I laminated it and she cut out all the pieces.

On the very back, there is a spelling game.  I made a very crude envelope to store all the pieces.  This is Princesses' favorite part of the entire lapbook!  They are cute little pumpkins with pictures of simple CVC words.  The letters are cute little pumpkin seeds too! The printouts for this literacy game can be found here.

Looking back, I should have used cardstock for everything, not just the printouts!  I actually used construction paper for the envelope on the back as well as some of the background pages for hte activities to be glues on.  Through use over the last couple of weeks, these have begun to tear and fall out of the lapbook.  I need to use better quality stuff!!

When doing our lapbook, I actually placed one component of the lapbook into one of our workboxes each day.   So it took Princess about 9 days to complete all the activities.  On the 10th day, we constructed the actual lapbook.  Princess has reviewed this lapbook quite often since it's completion.

To accompany this lapbook we also read a few books about Pumpkins including:

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

and The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

We are currently working on a Fall lapbook and I will share those resources with you soon!  I think that lapbooks will continue to be a much enjoyed addition to our curriculum!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Do you use lapbooks with your children?
What are you currently working on?

Let me know your thoughts!