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| Artwork by Jaime D. Buckley |
Children’s books are so much
more than just books. Books provide time for togetherness with a read-aloud. Books
are a strong avenue for language development.
Books are also a springboard for
educational activities.
The key is to make the
activities fun and to make the activities memorable.
The characters, storyline,
and theme of Pickled Pumpkin Pie by deb troehler (link) and
Jaime D. Buckley (link) definitely provide all of the above-listed opportunities.
When I was creating the
follow-up activities for the story, I kept going back to the idea of a whole
pie. Soon, that morphed into a HOLE in the pie—which lead to an activity that I
used to do with my students. The activity below teaches children not only the
difference between circumference and area. But it also helps children expand
their minds and think outside the box
—Or, more appropriately, to
think INSIDE the pie crust.
At first, Baxter
kept thinking about the edge of the pie—or the circumference.
However, he soon
figured it out.
The images below are useful
for teaching children to cut a hole large enough in a circle to climb through
it.
