The Great Pumpkin Flight
Ten-year-old Leo spent the entire afternoon before Halloween scraping the gooey pulp from the biggest gourd in the patch. He was not making a traditional jack-o'-lantern with triangle eyes and a toothy grin. Instead, Leo had a secret plan inspired by an odd discovery he had made deep in Whispering Woods. Behind a damp granite boulder, he had uncovered clumps of emerald-green moss that radiated a faint, pulsing light. Stranger still, whenever a clump broke loose, it drifted upward like a green dandelion seed.
Leo carefully packed the bioluminescent moss into the hollow belly of his hollowed-out pumpkin. As the last fistful slipped inside, the thick orange shell shuddered. A gentle hum vibrated against Leoâs palms. To his astonishment, the heavy pumpkin lifted an inch above his wooden workbench, rocking lazily in midair.
"It actually worked," Leo whispered, his eyes wide with wonder.
However, a floating pumpkin was only half the battle. If Leo wanted to ride it across the backyard on Halloween night, he needed a way to control it. Left to itself, the pumpkin simply drifted wherever the breeze pushed it, bumping uselessly into rafters and shed shelves. Leo realized that the luminous moss was buoyant, but it had no sense of direction.
- bioluminescent:
- Able to produce and emit natural light, like certain glowing plants, fungi, or animals.
- buoyant:
- Able to float or rise upward in air or liquid.
- shutters:
- Hinged covers or flaps that open and close over an opening.
- toboggan:
- A long, narrow sled without runners, used for sliding down snow or ice.
- aviator:
- Relating to the pilot or operator of an aircraft.
- colossal:
- Exceptionally large, gigantic, or massive.
More sheets from this passage
Built from the text itself â answer key included where it counts.
fix the sentence
Sentences from the passage with the capitals and punctuation removed â rewrite each one correctly.
vocabulary worksheet
Match the passage words to their meanings, then fill the missing words back into real sentences.
writing prompts
Two writing tasks that build on the passage, with plenty of lines to write on.
- All 4 sheets as one workbookPro
One PDF with a cover, contents page and every answer key at the back.
You Might Also Like
About this short story passage for Upper Elementary
âThe Great Pumpkin Flightâ is a short story reading passage about Magic Invention, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 4 minutes to read (646 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.