This Week on Purple Day: Grandmother Pumpkin

Purple Day is a podcast from Storytime in the Schoolhouse. Our Purple Day podcasts are the audio from Storytime’s Monday episodes. Please note: Storytime is written and recorded for the screen. Some elements of Storytime will transfer better than others.

In this week's episode of Purple Day, we will learn songs about autumn and falling leaves and hear a story about an old woman who grows pumpkins for all the children in her neighborhood. This Storytime episode will teach you and your child seasonal songs, poems, and fingerplays as well as a nature-based story. Enjoy Storytime with your child and deepen your connection to each other and the world around you.

Click here to listen to Purple Day episode 7: Grandmother Pumpkin.

Every Purple Day, or Monday, we are inside the schoolhouse for circle time and storytime. 

We enjoy singing and reciting nature-based, seasonal songs and poems during circle time. As the month progresses, we learn new song and poem verses. We also practice a deep breathing exercise on Mondays.  

After circle time, we hear a story together. We listen to nature stories and folk tales during the third and fourth weeks of the month. Today, we hear the story of Grandmother Pumpkin. Grandmother Pumpkin grows pumpkins for the neighborhood children on her bustling city block. However, this year, she can’t remember where she put the pumpkin seeds she needs to save for next year’s pumpkins. Thankfully, Clara, a kind girl from the neighborhood, offers to help Grandmother Pumpkin. Eventually, Grandmother Pumpkin realizes the pumpkin seeds are all still inside the pumpkins! 

When she gives the children the pumpkins, she tells them about the seeds inside and how to collect them. She asks each child to save some seeds for her and to plant the rest when the spring returns.

Click here to listen to Purple Day episode 7: Grandmother Pumpkin.

Lessons from the Schoolhouse

We are learning this poem together during Storytime. You can hear it in this week's Purple Day episode.

I am a Pumpkin, unknown

I am a pumpkin

Big and orange and round

I grow a long vine

Rooted in the ground.

When autumn wind whirls and blows

And the first cold frost does nip our nose

Children come and pick me up

Take me home and with a cup

They scoop out all my seeds inside

And carve a funny face with pride.

I am their jack-o-lantern bright

I shine with fiery candlelight.

💜💜Purple Day is a podcast from Storytime in the Schoolhouse. Our Purple Day podcast episodes are the audio from our Monday videos. Storytime members can easily create a rhythm of songs, stories, and creative projects by accessing our complete program of Storytime episodes, curriculum, and resources. Registration opens twice a year. Click here to be the first to know when doors open again.💜💜