Thanksgiving Reading Activities | Fall Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills

Teach and review reading, language, and figurative language skills using pictures AND teach students how to apply their skills to short reading passages! This Using Pictures to Teach Seasonal Add-On is perfect to review all of these skills during the Thanksgiving and fall season! There is a mix of fall and Halloween themes so you can use this resource ALL season long!

This resource also includes a digital, Google Slides version, perfect for virtual learning and paperless practice!

With these 16 printable pages, students will have the opportunity to observe a picture and make inferences, ask questions, make predictions, etc., while considering how the skill applies to the picture. Then, they will apply the skill to a short, high-interest passage that is LOOSELY related to the picture. So that students can make as many genuine inferences as possible, the story does NOT directly tell what is happening in the picture.

There is ONE printable pages which covers each of the reading skills below (total of 16 pages):

Which skills are covered in this Using Pictures to Teach Resource

• Inference
• Main Idea
• Story Elements
• Compare and Contrast
• Sequencing
• Cause and Effect
• Fact and Opinion
• Point of View
• Nouns
• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Prepositions
• Adverbs
• Idioms
• Personification and Hyperbole
• Similes & Metaphors

There are two components to EACH page of this resource:

Observe It: This section includes a picture with plenty of white space around it. The white space is for students to make literal AND inferential observations. Take as many notes as you can, encourage students to stretch their thinking, and watch their inference skills grow with EVERY picture you observe! Each picture also has a specific task to complete related to the given skill.

Read It: This section has a high-interest short story that loosely relates to the same topic shown in the picture (but does NOT represent the picture) and includes a task (or multiple tasks) that relates to the reading skill focus.

Please note: To allow for variety, this format is slightly different than the typical Using Pics to Teach Format.

The images print well in black and white. I do encourage you to project or show a color image for students so that they can make even more observations.

I have included an answer key, but PLEASE NOTE, students should be encouraged to come up with their own original answers. Since many of the tasks are open-ended, there are many, many justifiable answers. These tasks are meant to encourage kids to think outside the box! You will be amazed at what they come up with.

I strongly suggest working through several of these pages as a whole group before allowing students to work independently on them– particularly the “OBSERVE” section.

These printables are perfect for whole group or small group instruction, morning work, literacy centers, and more!

Ideal for Grades 3+

More Review Using Pictures:
Using Pictures to Teach Figurative Language
Using Pictures to Teach Parts of Speech