One book that all the classes read was, " Pumpkin, Pumpkin", by Jeanne Titherington. In this story, a boy plants pumpkin seeds and watches a pumpkin grow.

First graders used this story to learn about and practice retelling a story. We used pumpkin seeds, pumpkin cutouts and paper bags to tell the story using the clue words, "first", "next", "then", "last".

Mrs. Medynski's class worked together to write pumpkin carving directions. The children voted on the kind of face they wanted to carve for their jack-o-lantern. Finally, with the help of Mrs. Medynski, the children followed the directions and carved a wonderful jack-o-lantern!

Also, our classes enjoyed learning about bats. We organized a KWL chart to list all the facts we knew about bats. The children came up things they wanted to know about them. We read several nonfiction books to answer those questions and to complete the chart. We even made our own flying brown bats!