FrankenPete! Submitted by @ashlandrecreation
Announcing the 2019 Pete the Cat Pumpkin Contest Winners.
Y’all are the best, most creative, spooky-but-not-too-spooky fans EVER! The skill, originality, and work put into each one of your Pete the Cat pumpkins is AMAZING!! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a submission. You guys are all SCARY talented.
FrankenPete! Submitted by @ashlandrecreation
Pete with his real red shoes. Submitted by: @sarahsallyjean
Pete ridin’ along with his magic sunglasses. Submitted by: @mbblackburn04
Sparkle Pete! Submitted by: Jessica Boynton
SCUBA Pete! Submitted by: Nikki Lozano
Glowing Pete! Submitted by: @clairemiffy
Third Place!
Pete’s rolling down the road in his GROOVY bus! Submitted by: @savvyrosalee
Second Place!
Surfer Cat (recreation of Bob’s pumpkin from the Pete the Cat TV show!) Submitted by: @mcpriem
Jackson loves the book, Pete the Cat Play Ball, which is why he chose this Pete the Cat book to be the subject of his pumpkin character book report for school. When the project directions came home I was immediately trying to think about what I needed to do as a mom to support Jackson in completing this report and the accompanying pumpkin.
The report required all of the students to write a minimum of 2 sentences each for two of the questions and answer some basic information at the top of the page. They were also asked to create decorate the pumpkin he brought home to look like the main character in the book. The note indicated that the students must be the one to complete the project. Since fine motor tasks are daunting for Jackson and he does not quite have the visual spatial ability to write sentences on a paper quite yet, I knew I would need to provide accommodations to support him in completing this project.
I started thinking that I know that there are more than likely other students and parents out there who are also feeling worried about how to complete projects like this at home. I want to share how I worked with Jackson to break down the task and created opportunities for success, which in the end led to feelings of pride after his project was complete.
At first glance you might think that we did this entire project for him, but that is definitely not the case. The beauty is in the details and the steps that we took to get this pumpkin and accompanying report completed. Did it take time? Yes Did it take patience? Yes! Were there some frustrating meltdown moments? Umm… yes! We worked through each of those moments and it actually opened the doors to more creativity in our home and confidence in Jackson’s heart.
The following steps show how we achieved the book report section of the project on the required paper.
- Paul read the book with Jackson and discussed the details in the book. Jackson was able to make text-to-self and text-to-text connections with the book.
- They went back through the book and he incorporated the questions from the book report while reading the book.
- We had Jackson answer each of the questions out loud without feeling the stress of having to write a complete sentence on paper. The process of dictating the answers reduces his stress and gives him the freedom to answer the questions without the worry of writing.
Pause: I want to share that as soon as we sat down at the table to complete the report on the required paper Jackson escalated and started to shut down. Literally, seeing the paper made him shut down. I explained to him that he has already answered all of the questions on this paper and that I am going to help him with the paper. The lines on the paper were not clear for him so I provided starting dots and used highlighter to show the lines and the spacing. We also used a finger spacer to help with spacing between words.
- I wrote out each answer that Jackson gave me on a separate piece of paper and put it on his paper right above where he had to write it. He copied it on the lines. I only wrote one sentence at a time and only showed one sentence at a time. This help to reduce visual discrimination challenges when writing the sentence.
There were many moments of frustration, but there were also great learning opportunities in each of those moments. Jackson learned that it’s okay if he needs to erase and start over. He learned that one sentence can actually go on two separate lines. Most importantly, he learned that he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to if he doesn’t give up and that perseverance with difficult tasks can lead to incredible pride in our abilities.
This process of writing the actual sentences took us almost an hour. I asked him if he wanted to take a break and come back and work on it, but he refused. He wanted to complete the task. His hand was shaky, but I noticed he started to feel confident and super proud of himself the closer he was to finishing his paper. I wish everyone could have seen the look on his face when he realized he wrote all of those sentences for his report. He was full of pride.
Now let’s talk about this Pete the Cat Pumpkin character. I have actually never painted a pumpkin so we had our own little learning curve with finding the proper tools, but we did it and we had fun. In the first set of pictures you will see that Jackson is painting the pumpkin but the paint is not sticking to it. Wrong paint!:)
Transform Pumpkins Into Your Favorite Book Characters
Two months into the school year and Easton finally brought home a school project I could get behind: Literary Pumpkins.
For his school’s annual Pumpkin Fest, families are asked to decorate a pumpkin to look like a favorite book character. The pumpkins are displayed in the library for a week before Halloween, including during Pumpkin Fest so all the parents and kids can marvel at the handiwork. The project is totally optional but this one was screaming my name.
The problem? Getting Easton to sign off on my ideas. It is technically his school project after all.
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I first suggested Pete the Cat. I was envisioning how easy it would be: paint a pumpkin blue, throw on some ears and maybe some whiskers.
I was wholeheartedly rejected.
“I want Stick Dog, Mom!” he told me excitedly.
This was not what I had in mind. Stick Dog, while a fabulous book series by Tom Watson, is hardly the iconic children’s literary character I had in mind. Plus…Stick Dog is a stick figure drawing. How do you translate a character made of boxes and lines into a three-dimensional pumpkin?
I futilely suggest If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I was thinking painted-on overalls, some mouse ears, and a big cookie. Once again, I was rejected.
“Mom, it says your favorite book character and mine is Stick Dog.” Easton declared.
So it did. And wasn’t the whole purpose of this project to get your kids excited about reading? With a sigh, I acquiesced and started thinking about how to translate the sharp angles and geometry of Stick Dog into the roundness of a pumpkin.
It turns out I need to trust Easton’s vision more often because he and I had a great afternoon putting together his pumpkin. He cut out Stick Dog’s favorite foods, taped them to toothpicks, and placed them just right on our Stick Dog-pumpkin. He drew and colored triangle ears. He “helpfully” told me I didn’t have the eyes quite right and then gleefully screeched when I finally got them perfect. Together we painted and glued and admired our finished project. Then we snuggled up on the couch and read a few chapters of Stick Dog Tries to Take the Donuts. (Also pictured: Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog and Stick Dog Chases a Pizza — our favorite foods from the 6-book series.)
I guess these elementary school teachers really do know what they’re doing because they got us bonding over crafts and reading in a way that we haven’t in a long time.
Easton’s excitement over Stick Dog led to Sawyer insisting that he have his own “book pumpkin”, so I got my wish to create Pete the Cat as well. I’m already brainstorming ideas for next year …
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How to Transform Pumpkins Into Your Favorite Book Character
While Stick Dog might not be your child’s cup of tea, the idea to combine a love of reading with a pumpkin you don’t have to carve probably is your cup of tea as a mom. The older your child, the more independent they can be in the creative phase. Here are a few tips for success when creating the pumpkin version of your favorite book character:
1. Choose a medium to small pumpkin (think the size your child can carry), especially if you have to paint it. It’s just easier to work with than the largest pumpkin in the patch, and much less surface area to cover in paint. (See #3 below.)
2. Select your book character wisely. Think about what will translate into a general pumpkin or gourd shape well. The head of your favorite character is one of the easiest ways to make this work. Other great ideas we saw at Pumpkin Fest this year: Harry Potter; Pigeon (of the Mo Willems series); Where the Wild Things Are; Charlotte’s Web, The Cat in the Hat, just to name a few. But the possibilities are endless.
3. Sketch with pencil the outlines of what you are going to paint so you have a plan before jumping in with the paintbrush. You can even erase the pumpkin’s surface if you mess up the first try. Then use a fine-tip paint brush to paint the outlines before filling in.
4. Use washable paint like Crayola Washable Kids Paint. This wipes right off hard surfaces and washes out of clothing. Earlier this season, Easton painted a pumpkin at an outdoor festival where the paint was NOT washable — and we have a ruined Spider-man baseball jacket to show for it.
5. You may need 2 coats of paint for full coverage. If painting small areas, glob the paint on thickly. It may crack later but not to noticeable effect. Pete the Cat required two full coats of blue to get the correct color; one coat left him a sickly greenish-brownish-teal. Let the paint fully dry in between coats or else you will be brushing away the initial coat.
6. Do not carve or puncture large holes in the pumpkin as part of the creative process if you plan to display this inside for any length of time. We learned the hard way last year that carved pumpkins left in the house rot in record time. On the flip side …
7. Do not leave your painted pumpkin outside! As previously mentioned, Easton painted a pumpkin at a fall festival a few weekends ago. We left it outside to finish drying, and it rained overnight. Needless to say, there were tears and also a permanent paint spot left on my sidewalk where it washed away.
8. Accessorize with paper cut-outs, old clothing, fabric, and any other odds and ends you can have around the house. Stick Dog and Pete the Cat both have very distinctive illustration styles so I printed out clipart I found in Google Image Search to replicate Stick Dog’s snacks and Pete’s red sneakers and guitar.
9. Use hot glue to attach accessories , but know that hot glue doesn’t adhere super-permanently to the smooth surface of the pumpkin. So, use A LOT of hot glue or consider using toothpicks or stickpins to anchor accessories into the pumpkin. We used toothpicks and then added hot glue on top for extra staying power. (That being said, one of Stick Dog’s ears still fell off during transport to the school library, and there was catastrophic meltdown — Easton, not me, although I was close. Thank goodness for a library volunteer who found me a piece of Scotch tape to make him good as new again.)
10. Display inside in a cool spot away from direct sunlight for maximum shelf life. Pete the Cat is sitting in my kitchen window where the cool outside temperatures keep the pumpkin fresh. Stick Dog is in the school library until the end of the week.
The best part about these literary pumpkins is that there was no carving involved. No guts to be scooped out. No seeds everywhere. Just paint, markers, paper, and hot glue.
Who is your child’s favorite book character that would make a good pumpkin? Share your ideas with #NeverDoneWithFun! I still have many years ahead of me at this elementary school with lots of Pumpkin Fests to participate in.
Happy Halloween from Stick Dog, Pete the Cat, and our family.
