Pumpkin Soup activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Pumpkin Soup Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Helen Cooper's book. Read aloud the autumn 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 predictions

☐ analyzing character

☐ anaylzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ rhyme | rhythm | repetition

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship

☐ sharing / taking turns

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ adjectives

☐ contractions

☐ synonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The story, Pumpkin Soup is about three friends; Cat, Squirrel, and Duck. They live together in an old, white cabin, and always make pumpkin soup. Each character has a specific role in creating the soup. The Cat slices the pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in the water, and Duck adds the salt. One day, Duck decides that he would like a turn at stirring. This causes a huge fight between the three friends, and Duck leaves the cabin.

At first, Squirrel and Cat are angry at the Duck. Eventually, they grow sad and miss their friend, and go out to look for him. As they look for him, they reflect on what kind of friends they were to him. They even worry that he found better friends that would let him help and have a turn. When they return to the cabin, they see that Duck is there! They let him have a turn at stirring and have delicious pumpkin soup.

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