Lesson Plan for the Book The Runaway Pumpkin
Teach Students to Use Patterned Text to Compare and Contrast
Oct 15, 2008
Because of its rhythmic chorus and the parallel structure of the text narrating its main events, the trade book The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis [Orchard Books, 2003] is an excellent resource for giving elementary students practice with recognizing patterned text and using it to compare and contrast story elements.
Objectives
- Students will use a story map graphic organizer to record information about the characters, setting, and plot of a story.
- Students will recognize rhymes, rhythm, and the structure and patterns found in predictable texts.
- Students will compare and contrast characters and events from a story.
Introduce and Share the Book
Display the book's cover and discuss the title and picture. Flip through the book and have children predict what might happen. Read the book aloud to the point where Lil "foresaw disaster." Explain what that means and have children revisit their predictions and revise what they think might happen, if necessary. Finish the book and check predictions.
Use a Story Map to Compare and Contrast Story Elements
- Work with students to record on a blank story map information about the characters and setting of this book. Identify the problem facing the characters; how Momma, Grampa, and Poppa each attempt to solve this problem; and how the problem is eventually resolved.
- Model how to use the information from the story map to make comparisons between the different characters and their actions. Point out how certain elements of the three central events of the story parallel each other: a character sees the pumpkin, thinks of something Granny could make with it, and then is either busted/knocked by the pumpkin or (finally) stops the pumpkin.
- For assessment, have students make their own comparisons.
Recognize Rhythm and Rhyme in Text
- Work with students to identify and record rhyming words in the text, such as hill/chill/Lil, fine/vine, round/ground/sound, thumpin'/bumpin'/pumpkin, thumpety/bumpety, and so on. (You can also point out examples of alliteration, such as bumbling, big-head brothers and fat and fine.)
- Read a section of the text aloud and have students clap when words are stressed to develop an awareness of the rhythms of the text.
- For assessment, have students work alone or with a partner to use the structure of one of the events in the book as a rhythm/rhyme model for writing another stanza about an additional family member who has another unlucky encounter with the runaway pumpkin.
Extension Activities
- For a science lesson on physics, provide students with small pumpkins and ramps leading down into tubs or trays of sand or soft dirt. Discuss how in the book the pumpkin rolls "at first real slow, but then much faster." Have students experiment with rolling the pumpkins down the ramps and recording their observations (students can also roll pumpkins outside on grassy hills). Then have students look at how in the book, Poppa plows the ground to make a circular ditch to stop the pumpkin from rolling. Challenge students to create and test such a ditch at the bottom of their own ramps to stop their own pumpkins. Discuss how well this circular ditch stops the pumpkin compared to flat ground, and why the circular ditch might work better.
- For a reading lesson to give students practice with making text-to-text connections, have them compare and contrast this book with Pumpkin Moonshine by Tasha Tudor [Simon & Schuster, 2000] and with Pumpkin Hill by Elizabeth Spurr [Holiday House, 2006].
- For a lesson on taking care of the environment by reducing waste, examine how the family puts all the parts of the pumpkin to good use.
- For a cooking and baking activity, use pumpkins to make some of the things mentioned in the book, such as soup, bread, and pie.
Once students have practiced identifying and studying patterned text in The Runaway Pumpkin, they will be better able to evaluate the structure of other texts. For more practice making comparisons, have students try a lesson comparing and contrasting two versions of the same pumpkin folk tale.
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