Nonfiction Doesn't Mean Nonfun!

Happy October! This month brings the cool weather, fall colors, and Halloween! I love October and everything that comes along with it. In  the preschool class I work with, we have been learning about fall themes. Since we use pumpkins a lot in the fall (picking, carving, eating, etc.), we integrated this fruit into our learning. Last week we read a cute story, watched a video, and even cut open a pumpkin to learn more about them. The story we read was a lovely book called "Pumpkin, Pumpkin" by Jeanne Titherington. As you can see by the cover, it is an illustrated book featuring a young boy. This story follows Jamie through the process of a pumpkin's life cycle. He picks a pumpkin, harvests the seeds, plants them, and watches his own pumpkin grow. Although this book is fun and illustrated, it is nonfiction because of the true story it tells. We call this literary nonfiction because it reads as a fiction storybook but also contains true facts. Reading this book in the preschool classroom helped the children understand how a pumpkin that we pick and carve grows from a little seed. After the lesson, they were able to see the seeds in the real pumpkin which helped their understanding. I would recommend using nonfiction in the classroom as a tool for teaching and understanding as I did. There are many types of nonfiction to chose from and many different levels to choose based on the appropriate age and development.