k-6 Pumpkin Reading Lesson Plans
Welcome to our k-6 Pumpkin Reading Lesson Plans. I you have some of your favorite books that you read to your students then please click this contact us link, send them over and we will add them to this page.
I’m excited to share my Pumpkin Pre-K/K Pack with you today! It’s fresh off the press and I just printed off a few of the activities to do with my preschoolers this coming week.
In the pack, you’ll find an emergent reader and other pumpkin activities that work on rhyming, syllables, rote counting, adding, fine motor skills and MORE!
Celebrate Halloween! Read, Write, Think. 
In the United States, Halloween is celebrated on October 31. The holiday has its roots in the pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain. It was Christianized in the 9th century as “All Hallows’ Eve,” which precedes the Roman Catholic celebration of All Saints’ Day on November 1.
If you have Internet access in your class or school, assign one common aspect of Halloween (e.g., costumes, pumpkins, witches) to a group of students and ask them to search for information about how that aspect came to be a part of Halloween tradition.
Have students make a list of the characters from a text that they are currently reading (or from texts read earlier in the year). Ask students to create masks or costumes that represent one of the characters from the text. Each student could then be asked to deliver a short monologue as that character to a small group.
Ask students to write a narrative describing their best Halloween ever, an expository essay that tells how to plan a Halloween celebration, or a spooky Halloween mystery story. They can plan the last one using the interactive Mystery Cube tool. Helpful information can be found on the Mystery Cube page.
Patty’s Pumpkin PatchFocus Story: Patty’s Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat
Companion Story: Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington
Companion Poem: ‘Pumpkin, Pumpkin’
Day 1
Prior Knowledge:
Show several real pumpkins. What time of year do we typically see the most pumpkins? Why might we see them mostly in the fall? Where do we see pumpkins? What do we know about pumpkins? Interactive write with the children what they notice about a real pumpkin. What outside traits do they see(exp. color, texture, size) ? Cut one of the pumpkins and have students also note inside traits such as seeds, pulp, smell, etc. Write all observations on a pumpkin shaped sheet. (Printable Pumpkin Observation Sheet)
Focus Story:
Introduce the cover, title, and author of Patty’s Pumpkin Patch. Have you ever been to a pumpkin patch? Who might Patty be? Open the book and tell students that they will need to focus on the large pictures. We will be discussing the bottom ABC pictures at another time. As you have students look carefully at each page, ask questions, such as the following….
Again, thank you for visiting our k-6 Pumpkin Reading Lesson Plans page.
Pumpkins! Here are some of my favorite books to read aloud during this unit.
Pumpkin Patch
A Collection of Pumpkin Poetry
HALLOWEEN THEMEHalloween and Pumpkin theme activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten. Literacy, math, printables book lists and more!
Pumpkins, Prepositions, and Poems
During these activities children will have fun and explore pumpkins,
practice letter P or J, listen to a wonderful story online and more! There are many activities, so these can be done over a number of days. Note: It would be wonderful to have real pumpkins for the children to see, touch and smell for these activities and try to wear orange during the activities.
Halloween Reading Comprehension Worksheets and Close Reading Lesson
Pumpkins are popping up everywhere… cobwebs are crawling across porches… and stores have isles stocked with spooky masks. Fall is here and that means Halloween is right around the corner! Add some spooktacular elements to your classroom curriculum with my free halloween reading comprehension worksheets, book suggestions, and close reading lesson plan.When I first started teaching, holidays took on a whole new meaning for me. Like many people, I have always enjoyed the festivities surrounding most holidays, but there is nothing better than experiencing that joy through the eyes of a child. Halloween in particular is one holiday when I adore listening to my students’ conversations about costumes, sharing the thrill of haunted houses, carving pumpkins, and— of course —collecting candy. I use all of this anticipation and excitement to my advantage, by incorporating some of the ideas and symbols of Halloween into practical learning experiences for my students. In case you missed them last year, I am going to share again a few of my favorite Halloween books, lessons, activities, and organizers.
My Top 10 Favorite Halloween Picture Books
- Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
- In the Haunted House by Eve Bunting
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro
- Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
- Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies
- The Spider and the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi
- The Widow’s Broom by Chris Van Allsburg
- The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons
- Series books such as: Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown or Franklin’s Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois
Halloween Is Here! Haunting Lessons and Activities For Student Fun
- Halloween Fun with Rhyming Books in Kindergarten
- “Clifford the Big Red Dog” Learning About Halloween
- “Strega Nona” Activities for First Grade
- “Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia” Activities
- “Stellaluna” Activities for the Classroom
- Halloween Lesson Plans: Writing a Halloween Poem
- Language Arts Halloween Activities
- Creative Writing Lesson Using Digital Photos of Scary Things
- Create a Spooky or Funny Poem About Halloween
- Short Story Creative Writing Lesson for Middle School
- Writing Scary Stories by Studying Poe
- Teaching Suspense in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”
- “Frankenstein” Book Review for the Classroom
10 Halloween Websites for Teachers to Keep Kids Learning and Engaged
Just because Halloween is approaching doesn’t mean that ghosts, goblins and witches haunting students’ thoughts needs to be a classroom distraction. Savvy teachers know how to take advantage of the spooky holiday and brew technology into lesson plans.
From math and science to reading and literature, the internet is awash with educational websites teachers can tap for free lesson plans and downloadable tools that use Halloween as a backdrop to help kids learn.
Favorite Halloween Read A louds
Have I mentioned that I love fall? The weather is gorgeous here in Kentucky with a beautiful blue sky almost every day, and the temperature is in the 70s most days. It’s football season (which is good and bad news around here), and Halloween is just around the corner. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite Halloween read alouds and chapter book recommendations with you.
10 Ideas for Teaching Halloween English
Do you always use the same Halloween lessons, crafts, and warm ups in your English class? Why not try something new this year? Here are ten ideas that you can adapt and make your own depending on the level, age, and needs of your English monsters.