We love this sweet Halloween or fall book, Little Boo by Tim Zeltner! This is not your typical Halloween book, instead it is a story with a great message of patience. I can imagine using this book to discuss the importance of patience as my students get excited for trick-or-treating! It can be so hard for our young students to be patient, especially when something exciting is coming up. Little Boo is a story they will definitely be able to relate to, making it a great read aloud choice. . - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Little Boo is the story of a small pumpkin seed who just wants to be scary! He tries to scare leaves, a grub, and snowflakes with no success. As winter comes, the wind tells the seed that it is not time to scare just yet, he must be patient. She buries him in the dirt and the seed sleeps through the winter. He awakes to find that he has a sprout but the wind reminds him to be patient. As he continues to grow from a seed to a flower, and eventually to a fruit, he is anxious to start scaring. The wind is always there to remind him it is not time yet. Finally, the seed has grown into a pumpkin. He is picked from the field and taken inside. Before long, he has been turned into a jack o’lantern and tries to scare a cat. The wind encourages him and tells him to keep trying. Finally, the pumpkin that used to be a seed was ready to be scary.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Little Boo lends itself to teaching so many different reading comprehension skills! This is the type of book you could sit and discuss with your students for a long time, or if they need a break, it’s the kind of book you can come back to again another day without a problem. In addition to reading comprehension skills, we have selected a variety of other things you can teach with Little Boo. Check out our ideas below.
- Students can use their connections to the story to practice narrative writing.
- Encourage students to think about the steps it takes to complete something as they engage in how-to writing.
- Teach new vocabulary words from the story.
- Introduce and practice using shades of meaning.
- Analyze how and why writers use interjections.
- Lead a class discussion on the importance of patience and growing up.
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
- 30 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
Everything in this resource is specific to Little Boo, with the purpose of planning instruction based off a read aloud.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell
- Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
- Click, Clack, Boo! by Doreen Cronin
- Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
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!
