SeDoMoCha Elementary students bring characters to life with Storybook Pumpkins

DOVER-FOXCROFT — SeDoMoCha Elementary students celebrated autumn by filling a “Storybook Pumpkin Patch” in the school library through a contest featuring pumpkins decorated to resemble a character from the pupils’ favorite books.

Librarian Nicole Killam said for the second year in a row students and their families could choose to create a storybook pumpkin to connect reading and literacy to home with the intention being that families would read the book and work on the pumpkins together. “We have just about 100 right now,” she said on Thursday, Oct. 3 showing rows of bookshelves topped with the creations of varying shapes, sizes and colors with some keeping the orange and white of the vegetables.

“They have until tomorrow to bring them in and then the teachers will vote and they will find out the winners on Monday,” Killam said. She said three winners will be chosen from the kindergarten to grade 4 entrants, with the honorees each receiving a $10 gift card to the upcoming school book fair and a whoopie pie.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
SOME GREAT PUMPKINS — Students at SeDoMoCha Elementary in Dover-Foxcroft had the opportunity to take part in Librarian Nicole Killam’s “Storybook Pumpkin Patch” contest and about 100 pupils and their families made storybook pumpkins based on characters from favorite books. From left are kindergartener Payton Rosebush, second-grader Kinsley Hall, third-graders Grayden Nuite and Luci Bisson, kindergartener Kyle Killam, fourth-graders Maddelyn Demmons and Kendall Killam, first-grader Amelia Robinson and second-grader Kohen Tirrell.

“There’s a lot of new ones this year,” she said. “A lot brought in the book to go with their pumpkin and it not we matched it when we could.”

In 2019 the SeDoMoCha Storybook Pumpkin Patch features seven Ivans and three Rubys from the One Book, One School reading program selection “The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate. Killam said the replica pumpkin gorillas and elephants will be kept on display along with the others “for next week so families can come in and take a peek” during the One Book, One School ending celebration during the evening of Thursday, Oct. 10.

Fourth-grader Maddelyn Demmons said she worked on one of the Ivan pumpkins to make the primate title character’s head. “My mom and I cut it out and she helped a bit,” Demmons said in making the hair and face.

Kindergartener Kyle Killam, son of the librarian, said he and his mother put a nose, eyes, mouth and whiskers on their pumpkin to replicate “If You Give a Dog a Donut” by Laura Numeroff. The family also made a replica donut out of a much smaller pumpkin.

Killam’s sister fourth-grader Kendall Killam chose Numeroff’s “If You Give a Moose a Cookie” by making the title character with a pumpkin for the head with ears and whiskers atop a body. Killam said she worked on the Storybook Pumpkin over two days.

Second-grader Kinsley Hall made an owl for “The Owl Diaries’ by Rebecca Elliott. “I painted this part and cut out the felt and put it on,” she said about the process.
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Grade 2 student Kohen Tirrell said he made a “Little Critter,” based on the series by Mercer Mayer, with thin strips of paper for hair and work taking portions of two days

Kindergartener Payton Rosebush explained her pumpkin is Poppy from a book based on the film and TV series “Trolls.” Rosebush said she had a lot of fun with the pink pumpkin and its high hair of the same color. “The hair was the best part,” Rosebush said.

“They all did a nice job, they all look really great,” Killam said. “This year there is a lot of extra props to go with the pumpkins.” She said Olaf the snowman from “Frozen” was made out of a pair of pumpkins.