Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Jasper always helps himself to carrots from Crackenhopper field until one day, the carrots start following him. Jasper sees carrots everywhere and gets to a point where he can’t stand it anymore! He decides to build a fence around the field so none of the carrots can get out. Jasper’s plan works! His problem is solved and the carrots cheer because their creepy plan worked – they won’t be bothered by Jasper any more!
Teaching Ideas
Because so many of you recommended this book, I decided to create lesson plans for an Interactive Read Aloud to go along with it! The focus skill of the lesson is identifying the problem and solution in a story. Check out the pictures below to see what’s included in this resource.
CLICK HERE to grab this resource from my TeachersPayTeachers store!
For the rest of the books in this post, I’ve included links to places where you can find them online for free as well as Scholastic and Amazon links in case you want to purchase hard copies. I also included teaching ideas for standards-aligned lessons that could go along with each of the books.
The Ugly Pumpkin
This book tells the story of a pumpkin who has waited all of October for someone to take him home. No one wants him because he doesn’t look like the other pumpkins. This makes him sad and lonely, so he leaves the pumpkin patch to try to find a new home where he will fit in. Eventually, he finds out what he really is (a squash) and where he fits in (Thanksgiving).
Teaching Ideas
This story is very similar to The Ugly Duckling , so you could show the read aloud video of The Ugly Pumpkin and then read The Ugly Duckling and have students compare and contrast the two texts by talking about how they are similar and how they are different.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!
The old lady in this story swallows a series of fall-themed items including leaves, clothes, a pumpkin, and rope. The text prompts students to guess what she will make with all of those things that she swallows and it turns out to be a scarecrow!
Teaching Ideas
These books are great for teaching sequence of events! You could have your students put the items that the old lady swallows in order to practice this skill. You could also have them make predictions about what the old lady will create with everything that she swallows.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!
The old lady is back and this time around, she swallows a series of Halloween-themed items including a bat, an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and a wizard!
Teaching Ideas
If you have read any of these books to your students before, this would be a great way to teach them how to identify the theme of a text. All of the items that the old lady swallows are Halloween themed, so you could pause before the end of the book to ask students to guess the theme of the book.
Room on the Broom
A witch is flying on her broomstick with her cat when she starts losing things (her hat, a bow, and her wand). Other characters help her get her belongings back, but they all want a ride on the broom in return. Read to find out if there will be room for all of them & if they will escape from the dragon!
Teaching Ideas
This book is written in rhyme, so you could easily use this to teach or review identifying rhyming words. This would also be a great book to use when teaching problem and solution.
Scholastic • Youtube • Amazon
Big Pumpkin
A witch grows a giant pumpkin to make pumpkin pie, but it is so big and heavy that she can’t pull it out of the ground. She enlists the help of several other characters (a ghost, vampire, and mummy), but the pumpkin won’t budge! They are all ready to give up when a little bat saves the day.
Teaching Ideas
This story is very similar to The Gigantic Turnip, so you could use both stories to compare and contrast texts!
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
A little old lady encounters spooky things while walking in the woods. Those things follow her home to scare her, but she isn’t afraid. They are disappointed, until she gives them the idea to become a scarecrow for her garden.
Teaching Ideas
This is a great text for making predictions! Before the last page, when the scarecrow is revealed, the text asks readers to guess what the little old lady will find in her garden.
I Need My Monster
Ethan finds a note from Gabe, the monster that lives under his bed, telling him that he is going away for a week. Ethan is disappointed because he can’t get to sleep without his monster. Several other monsters try to take Gabe’s place, but none of the substitute monsters are scary enough for Ethan.In the end, Gabe comes back home and scares him to sleep.
Teaching Ideas
Scholastic has an awesome ‘How to Catch a Monster’ STEM Writing Activity that you can find here. (How to Catch a Monster – YouTube)
Epic! • Scholastic • Amazon
Teaching To The Test-Taker 