Pumpkins Grin

Poetry: craft and structure

Whole Group

• Suggested books: Halloween Hustle by Joel McHale, Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

• Video: A Pumpkin Grows (5 minutes) Activate background knowledge.

• Remind students that poems are organized in lines. Ask students to think-pair-share about what they notice about the lines of poetry in “Pumpkins Grin.”
• Tell students you will read the poem a few times. For the first read, have students listen and think about the poem’s meaning. What is this poem about? What actions are happening in this poem? Have students share ideas.
• For the second read, have students follow along in their magazines. Guide students in using a bigger voice when reading the last few lines of the poem out loud (especially the “Boo!”).
• Have students draw boxes around words that they think should be read quietly, and underline words they think should be read loudly. They can work in partnerships or this can be done as a group.

• Skills: Sequencing; main idea (15 minutes)

Skill: Dramatization of poetry (10 minutes)

• Divide children into small groups.
• Give each group one or two lines of the poem. Practice reading the poem out loud in a round-robin, with each group reading its lines chorally. Invite students to act out the words or add gestures and intonation that match the feeling of the words they are saying.