Mrs. Dingman!!! Please!!! DON'T Choose Me!!!
We continued exploring different types of creative writing by reviewing friendly letters, using a persuasive format. Children created two paragraphs, written from a pumpkin's point of view. The letters included vivid descriptions and persuasive arguments for me not to choose, buy, or carve them to decorate my front porch for this Fall season.

We continue to practice writing process skills using the available technology, aligning with the following Pennsylvania Academic Standards:
1.2.5 Reading Critically in All Content Areas
1.3.5 Reading, Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
1.4.5 Types of Writing
1.5.5 Quality of Writing
3.2.5 Inquiry and Design
3.7.5 Technological Devices



October 16, 2008


Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hola person of earth. My name is Halloween. I also live on a pumpkiny farm. I always have fun with my pumpkin buddies but sometimes it gets very lonely. But still, I always have fun. I always see cool things like snakes, spiders, insects, leaves, and vines. But the best part is I always smell chocolate and flowers. I get scared a little when I hear the wind. When it's windy I get cold. I always hear other humans screaming like they have ants in their pants! I like the taste of chocolate and other yummy sweet things But I don't like the taste of bitter nasty things. Yuk!
Oh Mrs. Dingman please don't pick me. There are other pumpkin patches in Pennsylvania. I'm dirty and I have germs. Imagine if you were a pumpkin and someone was about to pick you, how would you feel? It would also be very rude. Didn't your mama teach you any manners? I bet I wouldn't taste good. After all, I do have germs. EEEWWW. Please, please, please don't pick me. I would also like to start a family. I know it's Halloween (oh, isn't that funny, that's my name) but buy fake pumpkins, and then you can have them for next year and the year after that and so on. After all it would be a lot less work and maybe a lot less gas. I really hope you don't pick me so HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Your pumpkin buddy,
Halloween
AKA Alisa
October 23, 2008
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hello, Mrs. Dingman, I am Bumpkin Lumpy. I live in Pennsylvania in Graham Farm, where the Hansel and Gretel lady lives whose name is strangely Delhia (Dell-I-la). Every morning when I wake up, I see pretty autumn leaves drape over me like a blanket. At lunchtime I smell the crushed apples made into applesauce with 99% of added sugar. For dinner I taste a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows made by Delhia. I feel the rotten apples hitting my head at dusk. I always hear the lovely bird chirps at dawn except for Blue Jay... that bird is annoying!
Mrs. Dingman, I would love if you would not cut me up for my (and pumpkins everywhere) least favorite holiday. I am part of a family but if you want by brother Lumps Lumpy... take him. 90% of humans buy and eat pumpkins per year. You do not want to be on that list, do you Mrs. Dingman? Mrs. Dingman, we don't have a lot in common. I am a pumpkin and you're a human, not a good match, right? Thank you for listening.
Thank you,
Bumpkin Lumpy
AKA Serena 

P.S. I HAVE A LAWYER #570-DONT-EAT-PUMP... CALL NOW

October 17, 2008

Dear Mrs. Dingman,
I am a pumpkin and I live on a farm. I see pumpkins, trees, and the farmer. I smell tractor gas and pumpkin pies. I hear the farmer's wife yelling at the farmer to get a job. I taste pumpkin seeds and I feel wet dirt.
Please do not pick me. I am a green rotten pumpkin. I am soft so if I slip from your hands seven inches from the floor I will break. If you carve me open black hairy spiders will crawl out onto your arm. If kids smell me they will run in terror like they saw Frankenstein. Rats are inside of me eating my gooey insides. I even have gum stuck on my outside 'cause kids hate me. My scary witches rule my rats and spiders and don't forget I have mold like baby vomit inside and out. Remember DO NOT PICK ME. If you do I will hunt you and turn you into a pumpkin! Thank you for not picking me Mrs. Dingman.
From,
The Pumpkin Ruler 
AKA Kenneth

October 17, 2008

Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hi! My name is Pumpkin Patricia. What I see is all my kind pumpkin friends so much bigger than I, except some small, yet scary pumpkins with sinister smiles! Every chilly fall day I smell unfortunate, yet delicious pumpkins turned into pie and the sweet sensation of the sweet farm hay. A few days before Halloween I can hear kids yelling to their parents like maniacs about which pumpkins to pick, and the footsteps of the elderly, yet strong farmer helping pick the heavy pumpkins and haul them to peoples' enormous monster-like trucks. What I can taste is the moist soil that has comforted me for a long time, the icky, yet helpful worms, and the sweet plant food feeding me and helping me grow. Most of the time I feel relieved when someone doesn't choose me for their porch. I feel calm when no one's there on a beautiful day at the farm and I feel happy to be with all my calm and quiet friends.
Mrs. Dingman please don't choose me for your front porch for there are other mean pumpkins that bully my popular friends and me who are bigger and better for your front porch. Second of all, many creepy, crawly bugs will be attracted to my sweet pumpkin scent! The farmer will be heartbroken without me there because he loves me most. I am way too paranoid and absolutely terrifed of carving tools. Most of all, I would love to be an author when I'm a big pumpkin. My parents would also miss me if you took me for your front porch!! Thank you for listening.
From,
Pumpkin Patricia
AKA Izzabelle

P.S. I'd like to be rich too so I can buy my parents a nice vacation farm!
 
       

October 21, 2008 
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
I am a pumpkin named the Pumpkinator. In my big field I see a lot of ugly pumpkins. I smell decomposing pumpkins from last year and man those things smell nasty. I don't like gray birds. They peck very hard at our heads and you hear them all day long. I am getting really bored of tasting dry pumpkin seeds all day. I don't like bad weather either because when it snows out it gets really cold out here and there are no fuzzy blankets or cups of hot chocolate.
Mrs. Dingman please don't eat me, carve me, or etch me. If you do any of that I will eat Mr. Dingman. I might paint your house pink and tell everybody. I am a smelly pumpkin. I will run away and you will have paid for nothing. Ha-ha. I will scare you, somehow??? I will bite you. I have serious rabies that I got from a dog. I'm too young. I am very poisonous if you touch me. I'm not juicy. There are a lot of bigger pumpkins than me. I will laugh loudly all night long. Thank you for not picking or carving me.
Sincerely,
The Pumpkinator
AKA Jonathan

October 16, 2008
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hello, I a pumpkin who is on a farm lying down. Since I am small, I see a person's foot moving. I see people laughing really loudly. I smell hay that the horses are eating. I smell horses doing what they need to do. I smell grass as wavy as can be. I hear people fighting saying, "I want that pumpkin." I hear trucks roaring my way. I hear people saying, "That's an ugly one." I can taste the taste of pumpkin pie burning on the farm. I can taste grass. I can feel someone grabbing on my stem until it breaks. I can feel my bottom vibrating because of the tractors moving so hard.
I am going to rot while you sleep. I will rot in your hands like a tomato. I am very ugly. I will break the morror so hard that you can't see one thing. I am scary. I will go under your bed and make a mean scary face that you will run from like a baby. I will haunt you. Your socks will come off. You will get nightmares that I will take your favorite teddy. I am mean like a lion. I will make you cry like a baby. Thank you for understanding me and not choosing me.
Please don't choose me,
Lucy Lilly
AKA Marianny
P.S. I am not friendly. Don't count on me being your friend.


October 16, 2008
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
I'm a peaceful little pumpkin sitting in this peaceful patch. I see a flying nice black crow above the barn. A dirty skunk just walked by and oh my, he sprayed someone! Yuck! I see all this disgusting dirt under me. It is very dark and spooky because I sit in front of a scarecrow! Sniff! I smell those disgusting bugs. I also smell some fresh plants like they just sprouted. Today the air is as clean as water. What's that sound? Crickets! They are the best things to hear during the night. What's that? Humans! They always blabber their mouths every day, day and night. You know what scares me? The sound of owls. Eww! There's mud in my mouth! Why do roots always have to be in my mouth? The fresh water that the farmer sprays on me every morning tastes good. I love living the beautiful gold glory on this farm!
Once I overheard the humans saying that someone is coming to choose me for Halloween! I wonder what Halloween is? I'm very, very bumpy like a non-paved rocky road! I haven't washed in weeks even if it was possible for me to do that. I cost a lot of money, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot! I'm so thick and hard to carve. I'm really heavy so don't try to pick me up. I'm definitely seedless so if you carve me it won't me much fun to take seeds out of me. You know what's the worst? I have no stem. That is annoying to not be able to use for anyone to pick me up! So in case you had any plans with me, it is not happening! Thank you so much for not picking me and in case you come again next year do not pick me ever. THANK YOU!
Your non-picked pumpkin,
Terikin
AKA Tyler
  
October 23, 2008
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hi, my name is Ned the Pumpkin. I am a greenish, yellowish, round pumpkin. I like the color green and I live in the yard of my farmer, Ben, who lives in Kentucky. I have a brother and sister who moved away to live with a person who wanted to use them as decorations. I also have a brown-spotted dog named Spud and a cat named Pumpkin. I live in a house that farmer Ben built for my family. At night I like to see all the sly owls whhhhoooo, the slimy worms crawl, frogs hop, and crickets sing their song. When my farmer's wife starts to cooks, she cooks it so well I can smell her chicken soup, her fresh-baked break, homemade thick and rich apple butter, and best of all, her chocolate-covered bananas! At night I also hear the pesky mice squeak, noisy tractor plowing the lawn, wolves howling, and bats screeching. When it is gloomy and raining I tend to catch rain in my mouth. I also taste my delicious pumpkin pie when my farmer gives it to me, and bitter fertilizer when the farmer's kids grab hold of it and dump it on me. Yuck! I also feel children's feet when they run through the garden. In the summer I feel all of the annoying bugs attacking, hard acorns falling in the autumn, hoses sprinkling, and cunning snakes slithering.
I don't want to be picked, decorated, and then put on your front porch Mrs. Dingman!! I don't want to get picked because I would not look so happy on your porch because I would miss my friends and family. I also wouldn't liked to be picked because I would not fit in like all your other stuff because I am not orange. My farmer will be worried sick. And my mom! What will she think? My mom would pass out for sure! I don't know about you, but if you were a pumpkin you would be sad too. I also would not like to be carved because then I would not be myself anymore. I would just have to sit there on the porch and do nothing but stare at the road. I do not know if I told you that I was an active pumpkin, but I am and I would rather be doing something. Thank you for listening and not picking me to sit on your porch.
Sincerely,
Ned the Pumpkin
AKA Michael G.

This page was last updated: October 14, 2022
October 17, 2008
Dear Mrs. Dingman,
Hello, my home is great here. I can see the sturdy ground and a scary scarecrow. The scarecrow is OK though because the farmer said it keeps the cawing birds away. I heard the farmer mumbling glumly about not selling enough of us. I don't know why that's a bad thing because I would not like to be sold. I can also hear the nice creatures that live nearby. I can taste me (and I really taste good) and I taste the delicious water from the ground. I can feel the soft earth underneath me and the nice breeze.
Please don't purchase me. You really don't want to buy me because I'm really expensive. Also, I will really miss my sweet home. Pumpkins don't like to be carved. I don't need a face and I thought humans would know this but, KNIVES HURT REALLY BAD!!! Also, don't put me on your frightening porch. I'm kind of creeped out about porches because I heard about a poor pumpkin that was devoured by a monster with big teeth and big cheeks. I think the humans called it a squirrel. That is why I don't want to be bought.
Your friend,
Jack O. Lantern
AKA Frank

Please! 
Don't Choose Me!