THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN activities and lesson plan ideas
This THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN Activities and Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet includes lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.
Following an interactive read aloud of the picture book, THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN by Joe Troiano, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!
THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:
◼️READING STRATEGIES
☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER
☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT
☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING
☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL
☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS
◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ CONTRACTIONS
☐ MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS
☐ ADJECTIVES
☐ SYNONYMS
◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ INDIVIDUALITY
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
Spookley the pumpkin is not like the other pumpkins in the patch. He is flat and square while they are round with curves. Spookley is not able to roll around with the other pumpkins and they tease him for being different.
It’s not until a storm makes its way to the patch that Spookley realizes it could be good to be square. The wind blows all the other pumpkins around the patch and some even fall into the bay! Spookley makes his way to the broken fence and wedges his body in so more pumpkins can’t fall into the water.
The next morning, the farmer discovers Spookley and realizes how he saved the day! The farmer decides to plant more seeds just like Spookley. The next year the patch is full of square, rectangular, triangular and round pumpkins of all different sizes and colors. People come from all over to take home a unique pumpkin.
Joe Troiano’s rhyming book Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a festive book that teaches the importance of individuality, acceptance, and bravery.
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