Like I said, we’ve been doing a nursery rhyme each week.  Recently we learned “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.”

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn’t keep her
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her safe and well

Pumpkin Poem Books

These books were super easy to make.  The girls looked through magazines to find pictures for each line of the poem.  I used the pumpkin template below to cut out the covers out of orange paper and pages from white.  On the top of each page I wrote a line from the poem and then they found pictures for each line.  Of course, kiddos can also draw their own pictures for each line (that’s what Zoe wanted to do).

Pumpkin Houses

I cut large pumpkins out of orange construction paper and then had the girls create their own pumpkin houses out of them.  I also gave them some rectangles to make doors and windows with.  Zoe had the idea to use some of the leftover children from “The Old Women Who Lived in the Shoe” as Peter and his wife on her pumpkin.

History & What it Means

We also talked about what the rhyme might mean.  People used to think pumpkins would ward off evil spirits (hence jack’o’lanterns).  We talked about how people used to think this a long time ago and maybe that’s why Jack put his wife in a pumpkin–trying to keep her safe from bad spirits.  The girls idea was that Jack couldn’t buy a house so he made a pumpkin a house.

Taste of Pumpkin

Of course we had to taste some pumpkin.  We baked some pumpkin and chocolate bread which was very yummy.