Pumpkin Spice Literacy Activities
Written by: Brianna Guild, MHSc SLP
Date: October 9, 2023
You’ve heard of pumpkin spice lattes, but have you heard of pumpkin spice literacy?! In this blog post, I’m sharing 10 primarily pumpkin themed literacy activities to help you spice up your literacy lessons this fall! They are low-prep, fun, and perfect for fall and spooky season.
1. Sentence Strip Pumpkins
Use lined paper or draw lines on orange paper.
Have students write their sentences on the lined paper. You could do any sentence level writing tasks including copying, dictation, or generation. Discuss and edit the sentences. Then, have students re-read sentences. Alternatively, you could do this as a reading activity, and have students read sentences before making the sentence strips into a pumpkin.
Cut out the sentences into strips.
Arrange the strips into a star shape, and staple or glue strips at the bottom.
Attach the strips at the top with staples or glue to make your 3D pumpkin.
Optional: use green paper to cut out a leaf and stem, then attach it to pumpkin.
2. Silent e Pumpkins
Cut out the silent e pumpkins from the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
Optional: colour in the pumpkins or print on coloured paper.
Attach each silent e pumpkin to a popsicle stick.
Pair silent e pumpkins with the CVC word lists provided in the free handouts.
The student reads the CVC word (e.g., bit), then places the silent e pumpkin at the end of the word and reads the new, silent e word (e.g., bite).
Activity ideas:
Print CVC word lists, and keep pages whole for reading.
Print CVC word lists, and cut them into strips to read.
Print CVC word lists, cut out each word, and place words around the room or phonics center for students to find and add the silent e.
Write your own CVC word lists on white boards, chart paper, etc.
3. Elkonin Box Pumpkins
Print Elkonin Box Pumpkins from the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
Top row of pumpkins: the student segments a word provided orally into phonemes (sounds), and moves a token into a pumpkin for each phoneme they hear in the word. I have students simultaneously say the phoneme while moving the token into the box/pumpkin.
Second row of pumpkins: the student maps each phoneme to a grapheme (spelling). For example, if first phoneme in the word is /f/, then the student writes the letter f in the first pumpkin in the second row.
Lines: the student writes the full word on the lines to work on word level spelling and letter formation.
4. Build-a-Jack-o’-lantern
All you need to play is a paper and pencil/markers, or a whiteboard and dry erase markers! This word game is played the same as the word game formerly known as “Hangman”.
The educator draws a line for each phoneme (sound) in the target word. I also recommend giving your student a clue about what graphemes you are reviewing (e.g., vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, etc). You could also write “vowel teams” or options such as “ai, ay, ee, ea, ey” above the game if you are using it to review specific vowel teams.
The student guesses the graphemes in the word. If they guess correct, the educator writes the grapheme on the line where it appears in the word (e.g., _ _ oo _). If they guess wrong, the educator draws part of the Jack-o’-lantern, and makes note of the incorrect guess so it is not repeated.
The student’s goal is to guess the word before the Jack-o’-lantern is built!
5. Word Scrambles
Player 1 (or educator) writes the letters of a word in a scrambled order.
Player 2 (or student) has to determine and spell the target word.
Player 2 wins if they can determine all the words!
Word lists for word scramble games are provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
6. Finish the Words
Player 1 (or educator) writes the first word in a compound word.
Player 2 (or student) has to finish the word to create a real word.
Player 2 wins if they can finish all the compound words!
Word lists for finish the word games are provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
7. Words in Words
Player 1 (or educator) writes a seasonal multisyllabic word.
Player 2 (or student) uses only the letters in that word to write more words.
Game play options:
Give students a set number of words they must generate (5, 10, 15, etc.)
Set a timer and have students generate as many words as they can in the set amount of time (2, 3, 4 minutes etc.)
Compete against others, and see who can generate the most words!
Word lists for words in words games are provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
8. Seasonal Categories
Write a seasonal word across the top of the page. You could also play using any random letters you want! This word game is played the same as “Scattergories”.
Write any categories you want down the side.
For 2 or more players, create identical pages.
Students must generate a word for each category that starts with the target letter. The goal is to complete the full page!
Seasonal word and category lists are provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
9. Word Webs
Educator or student writes vocabulary or phonics words on the spider templates provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts. Alternatively, simply write words on squares of paper.
If students are working on expressive or spelling goals, have them generate or write the words for each web. You could do your regular spelling dictation practice on these webs for some spooky spelling fun!
If students are working on receptive or reading goals, give them words to read and sort onto webs (e.g., write out some nouns and verbs, and have the student sort the words onto a “noun web” and a “verb web”).
Ideas for word webs: synonyms, antonyms, associations, category members, parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), syllable types, vowel sounds, phonics/spelling words.
10. Mummy Words
Cut out the mummy template provided in the FREE Pumpkin Spice Literacy Handouts.
Trace the mummy template on a black piece of construction paper.
Cover the mummy with long pieces of masking tape.
The student writes words on the tape across the mummy. These could be any target vocabulary or phonics words. You could do your regular spelling dictation practice on the mummy for some spooky spelling fun!
Cut out the mummy. Optional: add googly eyes.
I hope you and your students enjoy these funtastic fall literacy activities! If you share any photos on social media, I would love it if you used the hashtag #PumpkinSpiceLiteracy.
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