The Runaway Pumpkin activities and lesson plan ideas

Our The Runaway Pumpkin Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Kevin Lewis' 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

☐ making inferences

☐ summarize / retell

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ cause and effect

☐ rhyme | rhythm | repetition

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ problem-solving

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ nouns

☐ adjectives

☐ articles

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The Baxter boys find a huge pumpkin that they decide they need to have. However, once they cut the stem the pumpkin starts to roll down the hillside almost into the Baxter farm! It crashes through the pigsty, knocks Grandpa Baxter for a loop and finally ends up resting in the bed that Poppa Baxter plows for it.

Once the pumpkin comes to a stop, the Baxter’s get excited about all the food that Granny can make from such a huge pumpkin. Come dinner time, she places all sorts of food on the table and sets up the giant jack-o-lantern she has made.

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