Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin 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 an individuality theme, this picture book by Joe Troiano 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 The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. 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 The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN SUMMARY
Spookley the pumpkin is not like the other pumpkins in the patch. He is flat and square while they are round with curves. Spookley is not able to roll around with the other pumpkins and they tease him for being different.
It’s not until a storm makes its way to the patch that Spookley realizes it could be good to be square. The wind blows all the other pumpkins around the patch and some even fall into the bay! Spookley makes his way to the broken fence and wedges his body in so more pumpkins can’t fall into the water.
The next morning, the farmer discovers Spookley and realizes how he saved the day! The farmer decides to plant more seeds just like Spookley. The next year the patch is full of square, rectangular, triangular and round pumpkins of all different sizes and colors. People come from all over to take home a unique pumpkin.
Joe Troiano’s rhyming book Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a festive book that teaches the importance of individuality, acceptance, and bravery.
THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN 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 The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, 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 The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- cause and effect
- comparing and contrasting
- identifying theme, message and moral
- making predictions
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- individuality
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- contractions
- multiple meaning words
- adjectives
- synonyms
THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN 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 The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin?
- Lexile® Measure: AD640L
- Guided Reading Level: O – P
- DRA Level: 34 – 36
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.5 – 3.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Joe Troiano. It was illustrated by Susan Banta.
What genre is The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin?
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 23 pages long.
