Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for Pumpkin Soup

Use Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper is a delightful and heartwarming story about three animal friends—Cat, Squirrel, and Duck—who make pumpkin soup together. Through teamwork and a little bit of tension, the trio learns valuable lessons about friendship, sharing, and the importance of working together. With its charming illustrations and thoughtful storyline, this book is perfect for helping students strengthen their reading comprehension skills and dive into a world of adventure, problem-solving, and creativity.

Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with Pumpkin Soup in the drop down below.

Making Inferences with Pumpkin Soup

The first page of Making Inferences with Pumpkin Soup

Making Inferences with Pumpkin Soup

In Pumpkin Soup, students can practice making inferences by paying close attention to the emotions and actions of the characters. As the story unfolds, students will infer how the characters feel based on their words, actions, and the illustrations. These inferences help students develop a deeper understanding of character motivations and the storyline.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Retelling and Summarizing with Pumpkin Soup

The first page of Retelling and Summarizing with Pumpkin Soup

Retelling and Summarizing with Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Soup offers students an excellent opportunity to practice retelling and summarizing key events. Students can retell the story by focusing on the sequence of events, from the characters making soup together to Duck's decision to leave and the eventual resolution. By summarizing the story, students will identify the main events and understand how each part contributes to the overall lesson of the story about friendship, teamwork, and compromise.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Understanding Text Structure with Pumpkin Soup

The first page of Understanding Text Structure with Pumpkin Soup

Understanding Text Structure with Pumpkin Soup

Helen Cooper's Pumpkin Soup provides students with multiple opportunities to explore text structure, including cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution. For example, students can identify how the cause of Duck's departure leads to the effect of Cat and Squirrel feeling upset. Additionally, students can use the sequence of events to explain how the story progresses from conflict to resolution.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Consonant Digraphs with Pumpkin Soup

The first page of Consonant Digraphs with Pumpkin Soup

Consonant Digraphs with Pumpkin Soup

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper as a springboard for instruction focused on consonant digraphs.

By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how the initial, medial, and final consonant digraph /th/ is used inside of the text before engaging in both guided and independent practice with digraphs.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Vocabulary Connections with Pumpkin Soup

The first page of Vocabulary Connections with Pumpkin Soup

Vocabulary Connections with Pumpkin Soup

This set of vocabulary development resources for Pumpkin Soup highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Running Record with Pumpkin Soup

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Running Record with Pumpkin Soup

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with Pumpkin Soup. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Tracking Character Feelings with Pumpkin Soup

Tracking Character Feelings with Pumpkin Soup

In Pumpkin Soup, Cat, Duck, and Squirrel experience many emotions while making their soup. This activity lets students track those feelings by drawing faces and naming emotions that match what each character felt at different moments. It's a fun way for students to explore how feelings change throughout the story and understand each character's journey.

Retelling Recipe Card with Pumpkin Soup

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Retelling Recipe Card with Pumpkin Soup

In Pumpkin Soup, Cat, Duck, and Squirrel discover that teamwork and understanding are the key ingredients for making something delicious. Now, it's your turn! Use this activity to "cook up" a recipe for the story by listing the ingredients (like friendship and cooperation) and steps that led to their success in the kitchen. This activity helps students retell the story in a fun, recipe format!

Cause and Effect Matching with Pumpkin Soup

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Cause and Effect Matching with Pumpkin Soup

Read Pumpkin Soup then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in a hands-on and interactive way.

This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in Pumpkin Soup. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.

Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with Pumpkin Soup

Thumbnail for Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with Pumpkin Soup

Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with Pumpkin Soup

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of Pumpkin Soup includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.

This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.

Making Inferences with Pumpkin Soup (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Retelling and Summarizing with Pumpkin Soup (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Understanding Text Structure with Pumpkin Soup (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

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About the Book

The cover for the book Pumpkin Soup
Title: Pumpkin Soup
Author: Helen Cooper
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Teamwork, Belonging, Conflict Resolution, Friendship
ISBN: 9780552545105
Publisher's Summary:
Every day Cat, Duck and Squirrel make a yummy pumpkin soup together. They always do it just the same way! But one day Duck decides to stir things up and make the soup a different way instead! Soon the friends are squabbling, the pumpkin soup is burning, and a very cross Duck is running away... Now he's out all alone in the dark, dark night of foxes and wolves and bears and witches. When his upset friends go out to look for him, can they bring Duck home to share the pumpkin soup again? Brimming with warm autumnal colours and delicious aromas, this gorgeous story of friendship and sharing won the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration.
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