Text Type: Fantasy / Serial
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 456

Text Summary
Halloween is coming soon, and the Hoppers are eager to carve jack-o'-lanterns. But the pumpkin patch is across a stream that Mother Hopper has told the little Hoppers to stay away from. When the Hoppers decide to turn their old blow-up pool into a boat, they quickly realize why Mother Hopper warned them. Luckily, Grandpa Grizzly arrives in the nick of time.

About the Lesson

Objectives

• Identify problem and solution
• Identify spellings for long /o/
• Identify and use describing words (adjectives)
• Recognize synonyms

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make text-to-text connections

Materials

• Book - To the Pumpkin Patch (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry-erase board
• Problem and Solution, Long /o/, Describing Words, Synonyms worksheets
• Word journal (optional)

     Indicates an opportunity to use the book interactively (all activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are not consumable)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: they, then
• Vocabulary: pumpkins, patch, jack-o'-lantern 

Build Background

• Involve students in a discussion about pumpkins and Halloween. Have students describe what kind of jack-o'-lanterns they have seen or made.
• Ask students if they have ever done anything a family member told them not to do. Ask what happened and what they learned from their experience.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Make text-to-text connections

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. If students have read other books about the Hoppers, ask them whether they recognize the characters shown on the cover illustration. Model how to make connections to other texts.
• Think aloud: I recognize the characters in the picture. It’s the Hoppers. I remember that Snubby Nose usually gets into some kind of trouble and Grandpa Grizzly usually comes to the rescue. It will help me to understand what I read in this story if I remember what I have read about the Hoppers in other books.
• Ask students what they remember about other Hoppers stories they have read.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through several pages of the book with the students, talking about the illustrations and using the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to predict what is happening in the story by using their prior experience with other Hoppers stories. For example, on pages 3 and 4 ask: Why do you think the Hoppers don’t go and get the pumpkins? Based on what you already know about the Hoppers, what do you think they will do next?
• Ask what students think Fluffy Tail might be thinking, based on what they know about her as a character in previous stories. Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures.
• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don’t know. For example: look at the beginning and ending sounds in words, look for familiar parts within words, look for long or short vowel sounds in the middle of words. Remind students that they should check whether the word makes sense by looking at the picture or rereading the sentence. Point out the word pumpkin on page 3. Suggest that they might recognize the part pump within the larger word. They might look at how the word starts, check the vowel sound, and look at how the word ends. Read the sentence to them and ask them if the word pumpkin makes sense in the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.
• For more tips on teaching high-frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out how the characters and plot in this book are like the characters and plots of previous Hoppers books. 

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 6. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Think aloud: I remembered that Fluffy Tail is the one who usually thinks the Hoppers shouldn’t do something, but she still goes along with the others. She was like that in this story, too.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story.

     Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows. 

Reflect on Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues. For example, point out the word perfectly on page 6. Show students how they could divide the word into parts (per/fect/ly) and use what they know about short vowels to read the first two parts and then add the -ly ending.
• Reinforce how using what they already knew about the Hoppers helped them understand what they read. (Connecting to prior knowledge helps students make logical predictions about how characters will act and what might happen in the story).

Comprehension: Identify problem and solution

• Model: Remind students that stories have a problem that the characters work toward solving. If there wasn’t a story problem, the story would be very boring because nothing much would happen. For students who need support, use a story or fairy tale that they know well to model problem and solution. For example, ask them what problem Cinderella had.
• Check for understanding: Ask students how Cinderella’s problem was solved.
• Discussion: Ask students to tell you the first problem the Hoppers had. Have them point out in the text where this problem is introduced. (They couldn’t go across the stream to get the pumpkins.) Discuss how the problem was solved. (They used their blow-up pool to cross the stream.) Talk about how this problem made the story interesting. Ask whether the students think the Hoppers should have used the pool to get across the stream and whether they think the Hoppers should have gone to get the pumpkins.
• Independent practice: Have students fill in the first problem and solution on the Problem and Solution worksheet. Then have them identify the second problem and solution and record it on the chart. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion:

     Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture showing what the Hoppers should have done instead of taking the pool across the stream. Have students share their pictures with the group. 

Phonics: Long /o/

• Have students find the words boat and float on page 5. Ask them to read the words and tell you what vowel sound they hear in the word.
• Write the words one below the other on the board.
• Ask students to read through the page to see if they can find any other words that have the long /o/ sound (go, blow, don’t, know). Write these words on the board next to the oa digraph words, creating columns based on spelling. Write the words know and blow in one column. Create a column using the word rose as an example, and tell students that this is another spelling for long /o/.
• Have students brainstorm words with long /o/. Have them tell you in which column they think you should write the words. Write each word as they suggest, and then have the students check the spelling to see if the word is in the right column.
• Have students complete the Long /o/ worksheet.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Identify and use descriptive words (adjectives)

• Remind students that writers use descriptive words to help the reader picture what is happening in the story.
• Reread page 4 with students and ask them to pay attention to how the writer describes the pumpkins. When they have finished reading, ask them what kind of pumpkins they pictured in their mind as they were reading.
• Reinforce that the words tall, fat, crooked, and biggest are all describing words.
• Have students look at how the pool is described on page 6 and tell you the describing words (old, blow-up). Then have them tell you what word is used to describe the stick (long).
• Have students practice identifying descriptive words using the Describing Words worksheet.

Vocabulary: Recognize synonyms

• Have students find the word in the book that describes the kind of pumpkin Snubby Nose wanted to carve (biggest). Ask students what other word they could use in place of the word biggest (largest).
• Repeat with the word that describes what kind of pumpkin Speedy Legs wanted to carve (fat).
• Explain that these words are called synonyms, and that they are words that mean almost the same thing.
• Give students the Synonyms worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading in the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. 

Writing

• Have students draw a picture of a jack-o'-lantern they would like to carve. Have them write about it using as many describing words as they can.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• identify the problem and solution in the book and in the worksheet paragraphs.
• recognize that the sound of long /o/ can be spelled in different ways.
• recognize descriptive words in text and understand their purpose.
• suggest synonyms for familiar words.

Comprehension Checks

• Retelling Rubric