Creepy Crayon is part of our Starts With a Story Collection, which includes more than 550 picture book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Learn more about this children’s book below! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
"Creepy Crayon" by Aaron Reynolds is about Jasper Rabbit who is not doing well in school. He struggles in math, spelling… basically everything but art. One day, he finds a purple crayon in the gutter. It was perfectly pointy, and once he brings it home, the purple crayon seems to show up everywhere! The crayon follows him to school, and when he writes with it, Jasper gets everything right! Everywhere Jasper looks, the crayon is there. Will he ever get rid of the crayon? And- what happens if he does? This story is a fun read and a great mentor text to discuss effort and resilience in the classroom while also acting as a fun and entertaining read aloud!
 USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Our read aloud lesson plans for this picture book come with reading comprehension questions (with sample student responses), 30 writing prompts, teaching ideas for grammar skills, social emotional learning discussion ideas, and more. Check out our list below to get a sneak peek at some of the skills this resource teaches.
- Have students sequence the important events in the story. This is an important skill when it comes to retelling a story.
- Discuss the different characters in the story and analyze their thoughts and actions.
- Analyze the illustrations in the story. Discuss how they provide meaning that the words might not.
- Have students practice their questioning skills as you read the book.
- Introduce homophones and discuss the multiple meanings of homophones in this book.
- Introduce or review how and why author’s use ellipses.
- Discuss a social emotional learning concept such as resiliency.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30Â writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
This book is a must have for your school or classroom library. Your students are going to love completing these activities for the book and you will be impressed with how much they learn. You will want to read this book to your class every year.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will love the similar books listed below, which can all be found in our free picture book list.
- Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
- Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds
- Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
