This document outlines a two-week lesson plan for teaching first grade students about fall rituals and traditions using the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer. Over the course of 10 days, students will read various books related to fall, learn vocabulary words, practice punctuation, discuss fall-related topics, and do crafts and activities. The goal is for students to understand signs of the changing seasons and celebrate cultural traditions while developing literacy skills. The plan incorporates strategies from educational theorists to make meaningful connections and encourage creative thinking.
This document outlines a two-week lesson plan for teaching first grade students about fall rituals and traditions using the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer. Over the course of 10 days, students will read various books related to fall, learn vocabulary words, practice punctuation, discuss fall-related topics, and do crafts and activities. The goal is for students to understand signs of the changing seasons and celebrate cultural traditions while developing literacy skills. The plan incorporates strategies from educational theorists to make meaningful connections and encourage creative thinking.
This document outlines a two-week lesson plan for teaching first grade students about fall rituals and traditions using the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer. Over the course of 10 days, students will read various books related to fall, learn vocabulary words, practice punctuation, discuss fall-related topics, and do crafts and activities. The goal is for students to understand signs of the changing seasons and celebrate cultural traditions while developing literacy skills. The plan incorporates strategies from educational theorists to make meaningful connections and encourage creative thinking.
This document outlines a two-week lesson plan for teaching first grade students about fall rituals and traditions using the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer. Over the course of 10 days, students will read various books related to fall, learn vocabulary words, practice punctuation, discuss fall-related topics, and do crafts and activities. The goal is for students to understand signs of the changing seasons and celebrate cultural traditions while developing literacy skills. The plan incorporates strategies from educational theorists to make meaningful connections and encourage creative thinking.
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OUR BIG BOOK: The Fall Festival- by Mercer Mayer
GRADE LEVEL: 1ST
IN DEPTH: FALL RITUALS PHASE 1 PLANNING: 1. Rational: a. Why did you choose this book to work with? What makes it a good book to use for two weeks or more? i. We chose the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer because we feel that it covers our main theme of fall rituals. Fall is a large topic that can be broken down; therefore it makes for a good theme for a long unit. Doing a fall unit during the actual season not only helps the students in the classroom but also allows them to have a better understanding of what is happening in the world around them. We believe that children have a lot to gain from this book because they can learn about fall rituals while enhancing their knowledge of literacy. Our main focus will be vocabulary, punctuation, and creative writing. While we will be focusing on literacy, fall can easily be incorporated into the common core curriculum. b. What is the key idea that you will have children working with? i. We will want our students to walk away with a great understanding of how they as human being know that it is the fall season. While they are learning about fall, they will also get a better understanding of vocabulary and punctuation skills that are crucial to learn during first grade. c. How are your plans connected to what younger readers need to develop as readers and thinkers? i. This lesson is going incorporate a lot that we have learned from Paley and Miller. Throughout these readings, we have learned how to implement useful strategies such as making meaningful connection, reflecting upon stories, creating lessons, asking questions, and making conversations deeper. We have learned this from Millers book, Reading with Meaning, and got examples from Paleys classroom in her book, The Girl with the Brown Crayon. Some more important quotes that we found to be useful when creating this lesson were: 1. Giving children a frame work for thinking and talking about appropriate ways to ask someone
to stop helps build respectful, caring
communities (Miller, pg 97). 2. When we plan with the end in mind, we set our goals for children first. We ask ourselves, what do I want children to know, understand, and be able to do at the end of a study and remember ten years from now (Miller, pg 70). 3. Readers create images to form unique interpretations, clarify thinking, draw conclusions, and enhance understanding (Miller, pg 105). 4. I too require passion in the classroom. I need the intense preoccupation of a group of children and teachers inventing new worlds as they learn to know each others dreams. To invent is to come alive (Paley, pg 50) 5. As often happens, our discussion of the book proceeds quite differently the next day (Paley, pg 55). ii. Connections to Holdaways Model of Discovery 1. We find that corporate experiences of culturally significant language have always been powerful modes of learning a. Discussing Thanksgiving and everyones different ways of celebrating is a great opportunity to learn a variety of vocabulary words while encouraging cultural significances in the fall season. 2. Reading to a group of children in school has little instructional value simply because the print cannot be seen, shared, and discussed. a. This shows that big books will promote literacy because the children can clearly see the words and follow along, while familiarizing with new words. 3. Increasingly we have come to see ourselves as attendants and facilitators of natural processes rather than as instructors a. We used this idea from Holdaway by allowing creativity for our art projects and activities. While we gave guidance, there was a vast amount of room for children to create their own processes. iii. Children begin to see books as sources of personal pleasure and derive from them a type of satisfaction they can secure in no other way. They quickly learn
how to handle books in the physical sense and begin
to use them in their independent access to the experience they enjoy so much (Doake, pg 3) 1. Our goals as a teacher are to demonstrate and inform children about how to use books to enhance their knowledge and reflect upon what they are reading about. By providing various books and activities, we are showing students the way to do so. 2. Two-Three week plan a. Week 1- Day 1: read Fall Festival to them b. Discussion about the book i. What things do you think describe fall? ii. What is another name for fall? iii. What is your favorite part of fall? iv. What colors make you think of fall? v. What holidays are in the fall? vi. What do you do during those holidays? vii. What do you do during Halloween? viii. What do you do during Thanksgiving? ix. Does everyone celebrate? x. What is the weather like? xi. What clothes do you wear? c. Go over vocabulary/spelling/capitalization- Use sticky post it i. Fall Festival, leaves, wagon, apples, cider, hayride, pumpkins, picking, apple pie, Halloween, horseshoe, prizes. d. Teacher will first highlight/underline the vocabulary words in the book to show students how they are used in a sentence. e. Together, teacher will write vocab words on the board f. After a couple words are demonstrated, students will have an opportunity to come up to the board and write/sound out each word. g. If they are nervous to come up to the board, they may call out the letters together. h. Have students draw picture for each vocabulary word and correctly spell the word. i. Independent experience-20 minutes for D.E.A.R j. **once read, books will be on display on the window sill. Students will be encouraged to look through these books during D.E.A.R and during project time for inspiration and ideas. It is inevitable that some students will connect with specific books while other students will not, and that is why providing many examples will be beneficial to the whole
class. Our classroom library will always be available to the
students, and it will be filled with books that deal with the fall season and books read from the past, classroom favorites, and teachers favorites. k. Week 1- Day 2: Reread the book- vocab words are covered up l. Fall activity (In the fall, I see I hear I feel I smell I taste)- they will use their vocabulary words to create fall sentences. m. Fall Craft- Make a picture using four stencils and write one sentence what is happening in the picture. n. Independent experience-20 Minutes of D.E.A.R- students can try to find vocabulary words in their book of choice. o. Week 1- Day 3: going to read There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro. p. Ask the kids before we read to make predictions of what is going to happen in the book. q. While reading, we need to write down what the old lady eats in order (learning the first the old lady did this, second she ate this etc) r. While reading this book aloud, I would incorporate a cloze, and have all of the students read the sequence each time something is added in the same rhythm. s. Old lady activity- we will pass out a hand out and they will color and cut out the different character and put in Old Lady stomach. See PowerPoint for example of activity. t. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R- while they are reading their book of choice, they are encouraged to find the order in which things happen in the story. u. Week 1- Day 4: go back to the book Fall Festival v. Cover vocabulary words in the book and have the kids say the word and chant out of the spelling of each word. w. Students make their own perfect pumpkin with construction paper and other material that we will provide. x. Once their pumpkin is complete, they write a sentence using three vocab words. y. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R z. Week 1- Day 5: Its HALLOWEEN! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (If school allows costumes, students may wear theirs.) aa. Read Click, Clack, Boo by Doreen Cronin- When students hear a vocabulary word in the book, they will raise their hand and go up to the board to write the word so everyone can see. They will all spell it out loud when he or she is done writing it. ab. Ask the students i. What are they dressing up as for Halloween?
ii. What is their favorite candy?
iii. What are they afraid of? ac.Monster Tissue Box Craft will be introduced ad. All students write on a piece paper what they are afraid of. If they do not want to do that, they can say what they are going to be for Halloween. ae. Teacher will copy all of the students and have them cut it out and put in each of the tissue boxes. af. Halloween music will be playing in the background when students are making their box. ag. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents are encouraged to write down every word that they do not know to make a vocabulary list of their own. ah. Week 2- Day 1: Welcome students back to class. Ask them about their Halloween experiences. ai. Ask them what the next holiday in the fall is going to be. aj. Do you remember things that happen during the fall? (Leaves changing, food we eat, what we wearetc) ak. Re-read big book (Fall Festival) with punctuation lesson included. al. Gradual Release of responsibility- First, we as a class we will create a sentence, question and exclamation about fall and write it on the board. Then they will discuss a question, sentence, and exclamation with a partner. Finally, have students write sentences about their favorite part of fall incorporating punctuation. am. Write on a cut out leaf, and hang on a tree on bulletin board. Questions, exclamations, and sentences are encouraged. (Leaves will be falling off the tree) (Ask them why I made it this way.) an. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents should make note of the different types of punctuation in their book ao. Week 2- Day 2: Read Pumpkin Time! By Erzsi Deak ap. Discuss i. What Evy was doing the whole time? ii. Why they were coming together? iii. Do you have a big feast with your friends and family? iv. What types of food do you have? aq. Since Evy made a pie at the end of the book, we are going to create our own pies with two paper plates, paint, and other scraps they want to put into it. They may make their own flavor or make up a flavor. ar. After they create their pie, each student is encouraged to stand up and present what they made to the class.
as.Remind class that tomorrow is our field trip day and
students must have all their slips in before tomorrow. at. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R- encourage students to highlight specific sentences that they think are important and if they want to share they can. au. Week 2- Day 3: FIELD TRIP TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH av.While at the Pumpkin Patch, students will make observations of what they see, feel, and hear. aw. When they get back to the school, students will be given a notecard. ax. On one side they will write their name and on the other write My favorite part of the field trip was Teacher will pull notecard out and have the student share. ay. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R az.Week 2- Day 4: Read the book The Apple Orchard Riddle by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas. ba. Explain to the class that this book is about a class who goes on a field trip just like they did yesterday but this class went to go see apples instead of pumpkins. While reading, punctuation in the book will be covered so the students will have to say which punctuation is needed. bb. After the book, we can compare and contrast our field trip and their field trip. bc. Exploration time: students will go to the classroom library and pick a book and find a question, a period, and exclamation point in their book. They can write their three sentences on a piece of paper. bd. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R if there is time be. Week 2- Day 5: Read the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. bf. Discuss- what changes when its getting close to Thanksgiving? What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Where and who comes to Thanksgiving? What do you have to eat at Thanksgiving dinner? bg. Turkey Craft- Students will create a turkey with construction paper and write 5 things that they are thankful for. bh. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents are encouraged to think about why they should be thankful for books. bi. This unit revolving around the big book will end here but students will continue to do more fall/ Thanksgiving activities most likely revolving around another big book.