Hey teachers, if you’re looking for a book to teach students the importance of taking ownership this fall, we highly recommend the book Pumpkin Town. This book does a great job of demonstrating characters that recognize they have made a mistake and work to find a solution. Teachers can relate this book to students' responsibilities in the classroom or at home. This is a light-hearted fall read that elementary students are sure to enjoy! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
One fall day, Jose and his brothers picked out the best pumpkins seeds, and threw the smaller ones into the field at the edge of their farm. A gust of wind blew the seeds off the hill, and onto the town below. When spring came, vines started growing all around the town and soon enough pumpkins started growing everywhere around the town, even on rooftops. It was becoming difficult to move about the town.
Jose and his brothers saw that the town looked different and went down to investigate. When they saw all the pumpkins, they realized what had happened and they returned to the town at night and removed all of the pumpkins and vines. When the townspeople found the tired brothers, they sent them home with 5 watermelons as a reward for their hard work. The townspeople were able to sell all of the pumpkins and build a statue to remember the 5 boys. Jose and his family enjoyed the watermelon and collected the seeds. Worried that the seeds would land in his fields, Jose threw the watermelon seeds over the hill and they settled all over the town.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Pumpkin Town is a great mentor text for teaching students important reading comprehension strategies, writing skills, and grammar concepts. All of our book companions come with activities that relate to these subject areas. Check out just some of the skills included in our book companion!
- Practice analyzing the cause and effect of the characters actions throughout the book.
- Have students practice identifying the problem and solution in the book.
- Integrate letter writing by asking students to design and write postcards.
- Teach students about creative writing by continuing the story.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on helping verbs and antonyms.
- Teach a lesson on nouns and pronouns.
- Have a class discussion about taking ownership.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
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
This resource is all you will need when it comes to planning your read aloud for the book Pumpkin Town. Gone are the days when you have to brainstorm discussion questions, look online for student activities, and spend hours gathering resources. Now everything you need is included in this book companion allowing you to make choices on what you want to use with your students.
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
- Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
- The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis
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!
