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As autumn leaves begin to fall and the air turns crisp, it’s the perfect time to incorporate pumpkins into the classroom. Pumpkin reading activities are a great way to engage students, combining seasonal excitement with educational skills. Whether you’re looking to enhance reading comprehension, spark creative writing, or simply infuse some festive fun into your lessons, these 25 pumpkin reading activities will provide you with a variety of ideas to celebrate the fall season!
1.Pumpkin Book Report
Have students research or read about pumpkins and create a report using a pumpkin shaped template! This doubles as a fun decoration!
2. Pumpkin Poem Writing
Write acrostic poems using the word “PUMPKIN”. What a great way to get the creative juices flowing!
3. Pumpkin Character Creation
Have students draw or craft a pumpkin character and write a story about it. This pumpkin reading activity is a great way to share student written pieces!
4. All About Pumpkins Reading Passage
Teach students about parts of text with a fun pumpkin reading passage to work on as a class or individually! This reading passage is part of whole packet of pumpkin reading activities, which makes it even better!
5. Pumpkin Fact vs. Fiction
Have students work in teams to read “facts” about pumpkins and sort them into what they think are facts vs. fiction! I love teamwork activities!
6. Pumpkin Book Cover Design
Have students design a book cover for a story they have read or create about pumpkins! Encourage them to highlight key details of the text in their design.
7. Pumpkin Mystery Writing
Teach students about narrative writing with a pumpkin themed graphic organizer. This pumpkin reading activity is a part of the same packet as the pumpkin reading passage!
8. Pumpkin Research Paper
Students can practice their informational writing with this pumpkin reading activity! Assign students informational texts or research on pumpkins and guide them to compile a research paper about what they learn.
9. Pumpkin Figurative Language
Use pumpkin themed phrases to teach students about literal vs. non-literal phrases. This pumpkin reading activity is also available in a packet full of other resources!
10. Pumpkin Read Aloud Marathon
Organize a time where students take turns reading paragraphs or pages aloud from articles or stories about pumpkins. This is such a fun way to practice fluency skills!
11. Pumpkin Play
Have students read a story about pumpkins and assign roles and characters for them to act it out as a play!
12. Pumpkin Character Masks
Have students make pumpkin character masks using paper plates. They can use them while reading aloud a pumpkin story!
13. Pumpkin Word Search
Find or create a word search with pumpkin vocabulary for students to complete!Â
14. Pumpkin Reading Scavenger Hunt
Assign students different parts of text or text elements to search for in a variety of pumpkin texts. This pumpkin reading activity is easily customizable!
15. Pumpkin Trivia
Read aloud a few articles about pumpkins and follow up by asking trivia questions related to the information in the readings!
16. Pumpkin Recipe Writing
Give students access to cookbooks or online recipes to read and allow them to choose one pumpkin recipe to copy onto a pumpkin shaped paper!
17. Pumpkin Story Writing
Read a narrative story to students that somehow involves a pumpkin, and then ask them to brainstorm and write their own short narrative story incorporating pumpkins!
18. Pumpkin Life Cycle Writing
For this pumpkin reading activity, give students access to research materials and have them create a poster where they write out the life cycle of a pumpkin from what they have read.
19. Pumpkin Comic Strips
Cut strips for students to write their own pumpkin comics. Have students exchange and read one anothers’!
20. Pumpkin Word Wall
This is a pumpkin reading activity that the whole class can contribute to! Have students write down new words as they read and research about pumpkins to create a class word wall.
21. Pumpkin Story Puzzle
Cut a pumpkin-themed story into parts and have students work together to put the story back in order.
22. Pumpkin Context Clues
Use the ready-made worksheets from this pumpkin reading activity packet for students to practice using context clues!
23. Pumpkin Picture Stories
Display a photo involving pumpkins in some way and give students 10 minutes to write a story about what they see. Have students trade and read others’ stories!
24. Pumpkin “Who Am I?” Game
Write descriptions of pumpkin story characters on cards and play a guessing game where students identify the characters based on the descriptions they have read.
25. Pumpkin Expository Writing
Have students practice reading and writing expository text by writing out the directions for how to carve a pumpkin.
These pumpkin reading activities will add even more variety and excitement to your fall reading lessons, keeping students engaged and motivated to explore and strengthen their reading and literacy skills!
Hi, I’m Shelly! Thank you for being here. I love helping third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers with fun and engaging activities that require no to little prep! Let me help you by taking some of the stress and work off your plate.
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