Teaching with Creepy Carrots
Have you read Creepy Carrots? It’s one of my favorite picture books ever, but I enjoy it even more during Halloween. I love that it has a hint of “spooky” but it all turns out okay!
I first heard about this book during my first year of teaching. We celebrated Halloween by dressing as our favorite characters and having guest readers come in all day. The librarian shared this book with my class and I was hooked! If you don’t have your own copy, you can find it here using my affiliate link.
I have shared it with every group since then (usually multiple times through the year)! I wanted to share this book with more than my own students…I wanted teachers everywhere to know what a fun text it was. So I reached out to Aaron Reynolds…not expecting any response. Within a few days, though, he responded and said he would love for me to make a resource to go along with it. I was so incredibly proud and grateful he took the time to respond and I wanted to create a resource he was proud of.
I’ve updated this resource several times because I truly believe in it. I believe Creepy Carrots helps teachers teach deep comprehension through fun illustrations and a silly story. Here are a few of the activities I created to pair alongside the book.
Character Traits
I love using Jasper Rabbit and the carrots to discuss appearance vs. character traits. Students can easily identify Jasper as white with big, skinny ears. But it’s a little harder for them to understand that he is a little greedy and a great problem solver. For extra scaffolding, you could provide students with the traits and students sort them by inside and outside. You could also share traits for each character and have them identify them as Jasper or the carrots
Character Thoughts
Students love to share what a character might be thinking and it’s a great assessment of their understanding. This would be an adorable little craft if students cut speech bubbles out and attached them to the directed drawing (below).
Directed Drawings
What’s better than 1 directed drawing? TWO directed drawings! I love directed drawings for lots of reason! They are one of my favorite end of the day activities and to use as a class reward.
Reason I love directed drawings (and you will to0!):
- build listening skills
- encourage following directions
- encourage growth mindset, especially for students who “aren’t good at drawing”
- leads to a discussion that even the most beautiful art starts as a tiny dot
- excellent model for quality work
- FUN
Attaching them to an activity makes a great and purposeful wall display!
Retelling
There are lots of of ways to practice and assess retelling. I included several in this packet and this story is excellent for retelling. It has a very obvious beginning, middle and end as well as a clear problem and solution.
Vocabulary
There are several excellent tier 2 words in Creepy Carrots and I wanted to make sure students had lots of practice with them!
Additional Activities
You’ll also find a few other printable activities and craftivity templates for Jasper and the carrots.
Depending on your schedule and the activities you choose, you may read the book once or you may read it several times. I like to read the book all the way through so my students can truly enjoy the story while I’m doing a think-aloud. To work on comprehension, we revisit certain parts of the book later in the week.
You can find all of these activities in my Creepy Carrots pack on TPT!
