Lesson Plan for the Trade Book Pumpkin Fiesta
How to Discriminate Between Important and Unimportant Information
Oct 19, 2008
Use Pumpkin Fiesta to teach students how to discriminate between important and unimportant information, how to compare and contrast, and what pumpkins need to grow.
When Foolish Fernando spies on Old Juana to try to discover her secrets for growing big pumpkins, he keeps misunderstanding which of her actions are the important ones to copy. Use the trade book Pumpkin Fiesta by Caryn Yacowitz [HarperCollinsPublishers, 1998] as part of an elementary reading lesson teaching the reading comprehension skills of how to differentiate between important and unimportant information and how to compare and contrast. Students will also learn what resources pumpkins need to grow.
Objectives
- Students will demonstrate an ability to discriminate between important and unimportant information.
- Students will demonstrate an ability to compare and contrast information.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the resources necessary to grow a pumpkin by writing a series of illustrated directions for growing a pumpkin.
Preview the Book
Display the book's cover and discuss the title and picture. Have students discuss what they think the man and woman are doing. Flip through the book and have children predict what might happen.
Reading Lesson: Telling What Is Important and Unimportant and Comparing and Contrasting
- Read the first spread.
- Remind students that when you compare and contrast two things, you look for ways they are alike and different.
- Have students use the text and pictures of the first spread to compare and contrast Old Juana and Foolish Fernando, and then discuss what they can already tell about these two characters.
- Read about Foolish Fernando's first attempt to copy Old Juana.
- Explain to students that not all information in the world is equally important. When you read, and in life, it is important to be able to tell what information is important and what is just interesting to know.
- Have students examine Old Juana's actions when she planted the seeds and discuss whether Foolish Fernando copied the most important parts or not. Ask them to compare his actions and the results he got with hers.
- Repeat this process with the next two times Foolish Fernando tries to copy Old Juana. Guide students to come to the conclusion that he is copying unimportant actions instead of important ones.
- Finish reading the book. Point out that at the end, Old Juana makes Foolish Fernando promise to pay attention when she tells him how to grow better pumpkins. Note that readers must also pay attention to be able to tell what information is important to remember and what is not as important.
- For assessment, have students practice their own ability to discern important from unimportant information by making a list of the things you must do to grow big pumpkins: break up the soil, carefully plant seeds in a mound, water the plants regularly, and remove insects from the vines. Then have them practice their compare/contrast skills by making a chart that compares what Foolish Fernando did with what Old Juana did.
Life Science Lesson: What Do Pumpkins Need to Grow Well?
- After a lesson on how pumpkins grow, have students review the things this book mentions that pumpkins need to grow well: broken-up soil, being planted with care in a mound, water, sunlight, and protection from insects that eat the plants.
- Discuss how each of these things helps the pumpkin plant. For example, breaking up the soil spreads nutrients and air evenly throughout it.
- Have students brainstorm and explain other things people can do to help pumpkins grow well, such as removing weeds that would take nutrients from the soil that would otherwise feed the pumpkin plant.
- For assessment, have students use the information you have just discussed to write an illustrated series of directions to tell someone how to grow a big pumpkin.
Enrichment Activities
- For an integrated art and visual perception skills activity, have children make pumpkin puzzles. Provide them with paper outlines of stemmed pumpkins. Have them cut the stem off unevenly to create a puzzle piece that will only fit back on that particular pumpkin. Have children mix up the pumpkins and work together to match the correct stems to the correct pumpkins.
- For a language arts activity, have students write a fractured fairy tale about a pumpkin Cinderella who is identified by her stem that she leaves behind.
Reading about someone who keeps misunderstanding what is important and unimportant to know shows students both how to discriminate between kinds of information and why this skill is important to master.
The copyright of the article Lesson Plan for the Trade Book Pumpkin Fiesta in Primary School Lesson Plans is owned by Renee Carver. Permission to republish Lesson Plan for the Trade Book Pumpkin Fiesta in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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