I’m not sure when I was first introduced to this book. Honestly, it wasn’t too long ago, but it also wasn’t recent. I think when you’ve taught for as long as I have… the years and ideas begin to melt together like a hearty Applicious teaching stew. And this book is just another chunky piece that makes teaching delicious. Either way… as soon as I read it… I knew I loved it and I wanted to share it with my students! What book is that? Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. There are so many ways you can use this little book in your classroom, especially around Halloween! Today, I’m sharing 5 super simple ways you can build literacy in your primary classroom using these Room on the Broom activities!
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Literacy Building Activities for Room on the Broom
First, if you’re not familiar with the book, here’s a quick synopsis: The witch is riding her broom. Along the way she picks up some friends. Then, she encounters a scary dragon, and her friends help to save her! It is written in a sing-songy rhyming way that is easy and fun to read. The illustrations by Axel Scheffles (who has illustrated many of Julia’s books are the perfect vehicle for telling this story!
Ok… so let’s talk about how you can use this book during your literacy block around Halloween!
Rhyming Words
Like I said early, this book is written in a sing-songy fashion and includes tons of rhyming words. One of the easiest literacy boosting activities you could do with this book is to go on a “Rhyming Word Hunt” as you read the story. (Bonus if you read it with a witch hat on!)
A simple way to do this is to give each student a little “hat wand” as you read the story (a picture of a witch hat taped to a paper straw!), have them hold up their little witch hat wand each time they hear a rhyming word pair. Take a moment to review the pair of words that were heard, then continue on with the story!
Perfect for building phonemic awareness and listening skills. It’s also an easy way for you to informally assess how your students are doing with understanding words that rhyme.
You can take it a step further and have your students complete a rhyming word broom!
To complete, each student was given a broom cut out pieces from this unit and picture cards. From there, the students worked to cut out the picture cards with words that rhymed with the word on their broom. In the unit in my TeachersPayTeachers store, there are differentiated options so you can make this activity work for all your learners!
Identifying Characters
Another literacy activity for this story is identifying characters. Since the storyline is simple and well defined, it’s great for highlighting main and supporting characters in a story!
Here you can see we used character pictures printed out on sticky notes to add to our Story Map Interactive anchor chart (You can read more about those here!)
After reading the story with my students, we worked to id the characters or who the story was about. As students identified a character, I passed them a sticky note and they added it to the chart. These are included in my Room on the Broom Mini-Unit
In the Room on the Broom Mini Unit there are picture cards you can use as well! For those, I would pass them out to different students and as you read the story, have the student holding the character card stand up. Then, after reading the story, work with the class to put the characters in order as to how they were introduced throughout the book!
Which brings us to our next literacy activity for Room on the Broom!
Sequencing a Story
This book makes a great base for sequencing at story! I like to use a Story Map to help illustrate the different parts of the story.
After reading the story, as a class, we worked to fill in the Story Map chart. On the second day of reading, we worked to identify the characters and the setting.
Then, the following day, we worked to identify what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. The students loved working on this part and the Story Map interactive anchor chart made it easy to record my students’ answers!
Making Connections
A great activity to do with the book, Room on the Broom is to have students make connections to the story and use it in their writing.
After our final read, as a class we discussed how the witch in the story was kind and allowed all the animals have a ride on her broom (even if she didn’t think she had space!) At the end of the story, this kindness was repaid and all the animals worked together to save her from the mean dragon!
To make connections to the story, I had students write about who they would have room for on their broom if they were the witch. This quick and easy writing activity allows students put themselve in the witches place and practice those writing skills!
In the unit on TpT, there are three different writing options so you can make this work for all levels of writers in your classroom!)
Balancing STEAM Activity
Ok… so I know this last one isn’t a literacy building activity perse… but I know your students will love it and it is super simple to do!
This idea is from OurFamilyCode.com and is a perfect way to end your unit! For this little STEAM activity, students work to balance the broom as different animals hop on! Read more about it here!
Room on the Broom Activities
So those are just 5 fun ways to build literacy skills while reading a classroom favorite around Halloween!
Like the activities I shared in this post? You can grab all the activities I shared (and more!) by clicking here or on the picture below!
This unit is standards-aligned and perfect for your k-2 classroom! Here are just some of the highlights:
- Easy to prep activities
- Activities help build phonemic awareness, word family understanding, and making connections to text.
- Includes differentiated options so you can easily meet the needs of all learners in your classroom
- All activities are done for you, all you need to do is print!
- Huge time saver! No more searching all over to piece together different activities for the week! It’s all here!
- Flexible! Use all the activities or just the ones that work for your classroom.
- No book? No problem! Includes a link to a video reading of the text!
Buy the Room on the Broom Activities now!
Do you have some favorite activities to teach with Room on the Broom! Share your ideas below!
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