The Ugly Pumpkin activities and lesson plan ideas

 Our The Ugly Pumpkin Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Dave Horowitz'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

☐ synthesizing

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing setting

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ rhyme / rhythm / repetition

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ bullying

☐ acceptance

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ nouns

☐ punctuation

☐ quotation marks

☐ antonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

 The Ugly Pumpkin is a heartwarming story about a squash that thinks he is a pumpkin. He looks different than all the other pumpkins and is teased for the way he looks. No one will pick him up from the patch, he is kicked, and trees throw apples at him. As a result, he considers himself to be the ugly pumpkin and feels very lonely.

One day, the ugly pumpkin found his way into a garden and realized he was a squash! He found a group that looked just like him and he fit right in! In this happy ending, the ugly pumpkin, now a squash, enjoys a feast with his new family.

Students will love this rhyming story about a pumpkin that doesn’t know he is actually a squash.

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