Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano is a story about Spookley the Square Pumpkin who never felt like he fit in with all the other pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. One day a great catastrophe happens and Spookley gets the chance to save the day! "And when the last had moved away, the farmer could see what had saved the day. An odd-shaped pumpkin, short and dense, was wedged against the broken fence." (...think Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a Halloween setting!) In the end, the farmer sows seeds from Spookley and the next year the garden is full of pumpkins, none of which are the same as the other! "Oh what a garden variety makes!" Children quickly get the message that it's okay to be different and we shouldn't judge each other for our differences. "Maybe one day we all will discover - you can't judge a book, or a pumpkin....by its cover."
What a great pairing these two books turned out to be! It was quite a coincidence that I came across these two books in the same week!
Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano is a story about Spookley the Square Pumpkin who never felt like he fit in with all the other pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. One day a great catastrophe happens and Spookley gets the chance to save the day! "And when the last had moved away, the farmer could see what had saved the day. An odd-shaped pumpkin, short and dense, was wedged against the broken fence." (...think Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a Halloween setting!) In the end, the farmer sows seeds from Spookley and the next year the garden is full of pumpkins, none of which are the same as the other! "Oh what a garden variety makes!" Children quickly get the message that it's okay to be different and we shouldn't judge each other for our differences. "Maybe one day we all will discover - you can't judge a book, or a pumpkin....by its cover."
Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak is another great story with a similar message that Spookley teaches us. Seaver the weaver was an orb weaver. He watched his brothers and sisters create their magnificent webs, but Seaver was inspired by the patterns he saw in the night sky. Each time he finished his web, his brothers and sisters asked, "What is that?" And they continue to insist, "If you want to be an orb weaver, your web needs to look like ours." But Seaver kept on spinning his own unique creations. He knew he could make an orb if he wanted to, but again the lights in the sky inspired him. "It is my web." He said and he held his head high. "I like my web. It is unique." Seaver's webs were quite successful and in the end his brothers and sisters accepted his unique webs and even asked for help in making their own!
The messages in both these books are quite clear: it's okay to be different and we should accept and appreciate the differences of others! Now go out there and spin your own unique web!
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#TakingCareThursTeachers (and parents, of course!) have the potential to make a huge impact on the lives of their students/kids. Join me and commit to reading a picture book every Thursday or the first Thursday of the month if you can't commit to weekly with "Taking Care of Others" or "Taking Care of Ourselves" themes in order to help our students/children learn important traits like empathy, compassion, friendship, persistence, grit, and more! Join me weekly as I blog about our book of the week. Make sure to tweet your weekly choice using the hashtag #TakingCareThurs so we can share books and learn from each other. Archives
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