The Gigantic Pumpkin Reader and Comprehension Pages
The weather is so beautiful and I’m so excited that it’s fall, I’m trying to gather myself to create some fall resources. I started off by revamping this little reader I’d done in the past, The Gigantic Pumpkin. The Gigantic Pumpkin reader is a 14 page blackline reader based on the opposite premise as The Little Red Hen, but with a little twist. It also has two follow up comprehension pages of different difficulty levels. They could also be used to help scaffold the learner from the easier level to the more advanced. The reader would work in a Pumpkin, Halloween, or Fall Unit or as a stand alone. It does have a nod to Halloween, but it’s never mentioned. The reader has to draw their own conclusion.
The Gigantic Pumpkin reader is created in a half page format to maximize copy, paper and ink usage. Prints 2 copies per page. Just print, cut, collate and staple. There’s extra room on the left hand side to staple. The reader is chock full of sight words, which makes it great for reinforcing sight words.
Purchase The Gigantic Pumpkin Reader and Comprehension Pages
I have some other great ideas, and until I get them going, check out the activities I posted last year if you missed them. They were super cute and teachers are starting to scoop them up! And watch out for the October Follower Freebie! I just can’t decide what to do!!! 😀
Five Little Pumpkins Math Activities
Candy Corn Puzzles: composing & decomposing numbers to 10
Fall Glyphs & On a Trick or Treating Night emergent reader
In the mean time, here are some things that I did in the way past … kind of like Throwback Thursday only today’s not Thursday! I keep saying I’m going to start doing some theme pages like I use to at The Virtual Vine, but I just have not had the time yet to do that. So maybe throwing out a little at a time will give me an incentive to push a little harder.
Jack o’ Lantern Math Center
Ha! Even this picture is old! 🙂
This is a math activity that we made to use in a Math Center. My Centers/Stations were set up for when students were not involved in small group instruction and had completed their other assignments. There were 5 or so activities in a tub and they chose what activity they wanted to do, completed it and then had it checked for accuracy before putting it away. With this activity, they built the jack o’lantern by supplying the correct number, set and number word. The nose was already glued in place.
Leaf Patterns
This fall leaf patterning activity is a simple activity that can quickly be added to a Center/Station and can be adjusted for different difficulty levels according to what pattern level is expected of the student. You can include pattern cards (AB, ABB, AAB, ABC, etc.) to be assigned for different student levels or for student choice. I once had a trainer tell us that students will choose the activities that they need. Hmmm …. I’m not sure that I go along with that one, because I’m the one that had to cover the answers up on the back of purchased self-checking activities because my kids just looked there instead of using their brains. And of course, the leaves for this activity are quickly punched using an Ellison machine and different fall colors. Then just throw them in a small plastic box or bag for the kids to choose from.
Fall Gameboard and Vocabulary Game
The school that I worked at was a high poverty school and one of the weak areas was vocabulary. So I really tried to weave vocabulary building into as many areas as possible … and make it fun. One of the activities I created was this generic fall gameboard. I’d already created these vocabulary game card questions and then I’d just change the gameboard/pieces as needed. I also changed the cards as I went along and the kids never got tired of playing this game. It was like playing a game show on TV and when appropriate I tried to use interesting gameboard pieces for them to move around the board. And as we’d have class, I’d see/hear things that I could add to my questions, jot them down and that’s where a lot of my questions came from. For example, if one of my students didn’t know what a water hose was in class one day the next time we played the game they might hear this question:
I am long and green and you use me to water your plants. What am I?
Color Words Skeleton
Years ago, back in the Stone Age … ok, not that long 😀 … I had a TA that was like the yen to my yang. We worked so well together when it came to creativity, all I had to do was come up with the idea, tell her and she would produce it! This activity was one of those ideas. I told her what I wanted and this is what she produced. She enlarged this skeleton onto a large sheet of construction paper, added the strips of color and laminated it and the bones. The two bones on the skeletons are in the right place but they’re on upside down, that’s why they don’t fit perfectly. 🙂 The kids loved this activity.
Spider Web Counting
Any time you bring out glow in the dark spiders, you have the interest of the kids! Another favorite, and for the webs you only need white construction paper and a Sharpie. I laminated them of course for durability. I guess now would be as good a time as any to tell you that one of my titles at school was Laminating Queen. I had others, but we’ll leave it at that for now. 🙂
Jack Candy Counting
Oh, the kids loved this activity! I loved this activity! Just seeing it makes me want to go back and teach!!! Ok wait …. let’s don’t get carried away here! But when you bring out a bag of candy with 55 pieces in it, the kids’ eyes get big and round and they think they’re about to get lucky! NOT!!! Then you have to explain that it’s for their math activity and they’re going to count the candy into the jacks according to the number on the back and they can’t eat the candy because it’s OLD. (and it is because you save it from year to year) You’re always going to have some really hungry kid ask just how old is it. LOL! And as a teacher, you’ve been given a free pass to lie when it’s for their own good … IT’S 10 YEARS OLD SO DON’T EAT IT!!! (it’s not that old) And of course afterwards, EEEEWWWW, _____ ATE A PIECE OF CANDY! And you just reply, “Well I hope you don’t get sick eating that candy it’s so old.” and let the natural consequences of worry take over. Because who really cares about having to replace a piece of 10 year old candy! Not worth the hassle.
That’s it for now. I’ve taken a really long time getting this post online and I seem to always be running behind. Miles to go before I sleep and all that! 🙂
See you real soon!
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