Some books naturally open the door to learning across the curriculum, and Spookley the Square Pumpkin is one of my favorites for doing just that!
Of course, children love Spookley because he is different from all the other pumpkins. But that one little difference—his square shape—also gives us a wonderful opportunity to connect reading comprehension, social-emotional learning, writing, math, and geometry.
When I updated this resource, I wanted teachers to have more than a collection of activities. I wanted to create two days of connected learning where one lesson naturally leads to the next.
And it all begins with a simple question:
What shape would YOU want to be if you were a pumpkin?
Start With Shapes Before You Even Open the Book
Before introducing Spookley, let your students investigate pumpkin shapes.
Could a pumpkin be square? What about triangular? Which pumpkin would roll? Which might flip? Which shape might move best on a windy day?
Students can complete the Pumpkin Shapes morning opener as they arrive. Then bring everyone together to discuss their answers.
This is a simple activity, but it gets children using math vocabulary and explaining their thinking before they even hear the story.
You can also ask:
Which pumpkin shape would you choose?
Have students place a sticky note or make a mark for their choice. Save those results! You’ll return to the class data later during math.
Now your students are curious about pumpkin shapes—and they’re ready to meet one very unusual square pumpkin.
Time to Meet Spookley!
Read Spookley the Square Pumpkin, stopping along the way to think about the characters, setting, important events, and Spookley’s feelings.
Some questions to guide your discussion might include:
- How is Spookley different from the other pumpkins?
- How does being different make him feel?
- How do the other pumpkins treat him?
- What problem occurs during the storm?
- How does Spookley’s shape become helpful?
- What do the other characters learn about Spookley?
After reading, move into retelling and comprehension.
Make Retelling Hands-On
Young readers often understand a story much better when they can see and manipulate the events instead of immediately being asked to write about them.
Use the story cards to revisit important events together. Students can place events in order, talk with a partner about what happened, and then move to a story organizer.
You can focus on:
Beginning • Middle • End • Characters • Setting • Problem • Solution
I like doing the oral work first. Let children talk, move cards, and explain their thinking before asking them to complete an independent comprehension activity.
That little bit of scaffolding can make a big difference!
Different Can Be Wonderful
On the second day, return to the story—but this time, look beyond what happened.
Why does this story matter?
Spookley’s shape made him stand out. At first, that didn’t feel like a good thing. But eventually, the very thing that made him different helped save the other pumpkins.
This is a wonderful opportunity to talk about how we are all different and how those differences can be strengths.
Students can explore character feelings, author’s purpose, and the story’s message before moving into their own writing about what makes them special.
Then it’s time to take that square pumpkin right into your math block!
From Spookley to Geometry
Spookley provides such a natural bridge into a study of shapes.
Bring back the pumpkin poll from the beginning of your lesson. Which shape received the most votes? The fewest? How many students selected each shape?
Now move beyond simply naming shapes and begin looking at their attributes.
Students can investigate questions such as:
Does it have straight sides?
Does it have curved sides?
How many sides does it have?
How many corners does it have?
Is it closed?
Is it a polygon?
The pumpkin shape cards can be used for matching, concentration, partner work, or sorting.
One day students might sort polygons and not polygons. Another group might sort shapes by corners/no corners or four sides/not four sides.
The What Is a Polygon? anchor chart gives children a simple strategy they can use independently:
Is it closed?
Are all the sides straight?
Does it have at least three sides?
If the answer is yes to all three, they’ve found a polygon!
Instead of simply memorizing shape names, children begin to explain why a shape belongs in a particular group.
You Don’t Have to Do It All!
This resource has grown into a large collection of literacy and math activities, but it isn’t meant to be a checklist.
Choose what works for your students.
You might use the two-day lesson plans for whole-group instruction and then place other activities in centers throughout the week.
The story cards might go into a literacy center. Pumpkin concentration can become a math partner game. The polygon sort can be used with a small group. Independent pages can provide extra practice or a quick assessment.
That’s one of the reasons I love creating cross-curricular resources—one great book can continue supporting learning throughout the day.
Finish With a Pumpkin Patch Full of Differences
After all that reading, thinking, sorting, and writing, give students an opportunity to create!
Let children create pumpkins in different shapes and display them together as a classroom pumpkin patch.
Imagine a bulletin board filled with round pumpkins, square pumpkins, triangle pumpkins—and perhaps a few shapes no one expected!
It’s the perfect way to bring the lesson back to where it began.
At the beginning, students wondered:
What shape would I want to be if I were a pumpkin?
By the end, they’ve learned much more than the names of shapes. They’ve practiced comprehension, retelling, writing, data collection, geometry, and mathematical reasoning while exploring an important message:
Different can be wonderful!
And that is what makes Spookley the Square Pumpkin such a fun story to build a day—or two—of learning around.
Spookley the Square Pumpkin: Literacy, Math, Shapes & Celebrating Differences is available in my First Grade Hip Hip Hooray TpT store.
Michele 🩷🩷
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