Pumpkin Jack activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Pumpkin Jack Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Will Hubbell's book. Read aloud the Halloween picture book then use the printables or go paperless with Google or Seesaw to practice standards-based skills.

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ summarize / retell

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing setting

☐ making connections

☐ sequencing

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ patience

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ time order words

☐ shades of meaning

☐ capitalization

☐ possessive nouns

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

One day before Halloween, Tim carved his jack-o-lantern. It had a big silly smile and Tim thought it was perfect. He decided to name the pumpkin Jack, and it stayed in his room long after Halloween. Eventually, Tim’s mother told him it was time to get rid of the pumpkin as it was starting to rot. Rather than throwing it in the garbage, Tim left it outside in the garden. As the seasons changed, the pumpkin rotted and shriveled up into the ground.

By the time spring came, all that was left was some pumpkin skin and seeds. Tim buried the seeds and soon a plant started to grow. Tim spent months weeding and watering his pumpkin plant. As Halloween got closer again, Tim had pumpkins growing in his garden! There were so many he was able to share them with his friends. Tim picked his own pumpkin and carved it into a jack-o-lantern. Once again, he named his pumpkin Jack.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social-Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list-making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables