Pumpkins
Pumpkin Lanterns
A Read-Along Activity
The teddy bears are looking forward to Hallowe'en. They like to decorate the house with lots of spooky things and this year they thought it would be fun to make their own pumpkin lanterns.
They invited their friends to go with them to visit their nearest pumpkin farm where there were loads of pumpkins to choose from. So many, in fact, that it was very difficult for them all to agree on a particular one.
In the end they bought the biggest pumpkin they could find which, compared to the smallest of the bears, was HUGE!!
Once they arrived home, Oscar, Gerry and Alfred asked if they could cut out the face on the pumpkin and the other bears said that would be alright. However, none of the bears or their friends really wanted to start cutting into such a lovely pumpkin, nor were they really allowed to use sharp knives. Teddy had told them about a soup they could make from pumpkins and they all thought they would prefer their pumpkin that way instead.
But they still wanted to make the pumpkin more Hallowe'en-y temporarily (before they turned it into a yummy soup!) Edward had an idea!
"I'm sure we could cut some shapes out of black paper and stick them on to the pumpkin in the shape of a scary (not you, Scary!) face. That would be a good decoration for Hallowe'en," he said.
So they found some black paper and some glue and then cut out all sorts of shapes until they had some that they could stick on to look like a face. It looked very realistic, as if they had cut holes into the pumpkin itself. The bears were very pleased with the result.
But without the pumpkin being hollowed out and holes cut into it, they couldn't put any lights inside to make it glow eerily, which was a little bit disappointing.
"Wait a minute!" said Scary suddenly. "I know what we can use instead" and he rushed off to an old cupboard and right at the back he found what he was looking for.
"A-ha!" he announced. "Let's use this as well!" and he produced a pottery pumpkin head with a hollow centre. "We could maybe put some fairy lights inside this to make it glow and look alive."
"I know where the fairy lights are!" shouted Lizzie and she went to search among their Christmas decorations until she found a suitably spookily-coloured set of lights for the pumpkin and then ran back and placed them inside it. The pumpkin lantern then looked perfect for Hallowe'en and they placed it on the windowsill so that all their neighbours could see it.
Maybe you could try making your own pumpkin lantern too. If you want to copy the pattern the bears used for the face, then click here.
