Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With a theme of participation, this Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato picture book by Tomie dePaola is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
JAMIE O'ROURKE AND THE BIG POTATO SUMMARY
Jamie O’Rourke is very lazy, especially when it comes to working. His wife Eileen, does all of their planting, weeding and watering. One day, Eileen hurts her back and could not do the planting. Jamie started to worry that they wouldn’t have enough food to eat over the winter.
On a late night walk to church, Jamie caught a leprechaun. Instead of taking the pot of gold, the leprechaun tricked Jamie into wishing for the biggest potato ever. Jamie returned home to plant his potato seed and soon after it grew into a giant potato. The villagers in town were amazed and offered to help Jamie dig up the potato if he explained how he tricked the leprechaun.
When the potato rolls away and blocks the road, everyone must take home pieces of the potato to eat all winter. By spring, everyone is tired of potatoes and the villagers do not want Jamie to plant more seeds. They decided to make sure he always has enough food so they never have to see a potato again.
JAMIE O’ROURKE AND THE BIG POTATO LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- summarizing and retelling
- analyzing character
- plot | problem and solution
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- participation
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- plural nouns
- irregular verbs
- contractions
- base words
JAMIE O’ROURKE AND THE BIG POTATO ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- 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
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato?
- Lexile® Measure: AD790L
- Guided Reading Level: S
- DRA Level: 42 – 44
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 4.7 – 5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.
What genre is Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
