Lesson Four

First Grade Language Arts - Pumpkins Lesson Four

October 17, 2001

1. Context
Fouth unit lesson exploring pumpkins through literatue and writing.

     A.) Activities will be for the entire class to participate in at their tables and on the carpet.

     B. Student have a general knowledge of and questions regarding pumpkins. Students existing knowledge will be used to work on students' ability to read and write which are essential to gain information and ideas from a variety of sources. Appreciating literature and recognizing its many forms enable students to learn and respond to ideas, issues, perspectives and actions of others. Individuals must also be capable of writing for a variety of audiences in different styles.

     C. 1.B.1a. - establish purposes for reading, make predictions, connect important ideas, and link text to previous knowledge and experiences.
     1.B.1b. - Identify genres of fiction and non-fiction...
     1.C.1a. - Use information to form questions and verify predictions.
     1.C.1a - Identify themes and topics.
     2.A.1b - Classify literary works as fiction and non-fiction.
     3.B.1a - Use prewriting stratagies to generate and organize ideas (e.g. focus on one topic).,
     4.A.1a - Listen attentively by facing the speaker, making eye contact and paraphrasing what is said.
     4.A.1c - Follow oral instructions accurately.
     4.B.1b - Participate in discussion around a common topic.

2. Objective

     A. Students will learn some facts about pumpkins, connect writing to a specific topic and learn how books can be found on a specific topic in both fiction and non-fiction books.
     B. Students will be expected to express their existing knowledge in writing.
     C. Students will be expected to be good listeners.

3. Method

     A.Materials needed

          1) I will need The Stubborn Pumpkin, The Biggest Pumpkin Ever and Pumpkin Eyes or use The Pumpkin Shell if pumpkin Eyes does not come in. Poem "Five Little Pumpkins" on chart paper (already written out), paper plates, orange paint, and small squares of tag board.

          2) Students will need their pumpkin journals, black, brown and green crayons and sharpened pencils.

     B.) Before reading, students will be seated at their tables with up to four students per table. During book readings students will sit on the carpet together. After reading, students will return to their seats to create a paper plate pumpkin to explore crayon resist art.
     C.) Begin by asking students to write about how pumpkins grow. We have read about pumpkins growing in books. Students should have an idea about how they grow and be able to put something in writing. This will help students learn to put their understandings and knowledge in writing. Spelling is still not a main concern, but putting what they understand into writing form is.

After approximately ten to fifteen minutes of writing, students will come to the carpet for reading time. Create a "L" chart about what students have learned about pumpkins. I will read the books The Biggest Pumpkin Ever and It's a Fruit, It's A Vegetable, It's a Pumpkin. I will guide students in creating a graph about pumpkins. What can you make from pumpkins? Students will then read aloud together the poem "Five Little Pumpkins," which they have been working on.

Students will then get paint shirts from their lockers if they have them and return to their seats for an art project. Get a leftover newspaper from in front of the office to cover tables with Using paper plates, students are to use black crayons to draw designs of their choice to create pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns. After drawing, students need to write their names on the back of the plates, color and cut out stems from the squares of tag board and glue them on. I will come around with orange paint and paint brushes. Placing ample paint on their plates, students are to paint their pumpkins. Direct students attention to how the areas they colored resist the paint. (Crayon resist artwork!)

4. Evaluation

Students will be assessed on following directions, if they write on topic in their journals, and listening and participating on the carpet.

I will use the following rubric to assess student's progress:
     4 = Child has followed instructions, written on topic, and participated in discussion.
     3 = Child followed most directions, written something in their journal and participated in discussion.
     2 = Child has followed some directions, wrote off topic, and contributed little to discussion.
     1 = Child did not follow directions, wrote nothing, did not participate in discussion.

     B.) Participation and following directions will be judged during discussion at reading time, art project and journal writing. The writing and art project will give evidence of following directions also. I will note those on task according to the above rubric during the art and writing assignments.

     C.) If students are able to follow along with the lesson, participate in discussion coherently and grasp the information, I will continue. Much of the information is repeatative in different formats throughout the lessons. Tommorrows lesson will be a summarization of the week and test their overall knowledge and understanding with their pumpkin picking field trip to follow next week and other reinforcement.

5. Feedback:
Pumpkin theme - How do you get a square pumpkin? Great question, interesting answers, and then the facts. I thought this was great information. the boys and girls were amazed and excited.

Lore and Legend- Introduction of new vocabulary. Let's try to find more lore & legend books.

Jack-O-Lanternbringing information from one day to another from one book to another. You made a very good choice of non-fiction books. Marking important points of interest in the book caught their interest and is something to use in other non-fiction books.

Art Project The pumpkin plate art project worked okay. I liked the idea of the crayon resist. Most of the boys an girls worked will. This was a good day and you did a very good job of running the days curriculum.

6. Reflection:
I changed my choice of books for the day because I had not been able to cover more than one book in the previous two lessons. Also today's lesson was started after lunch and the class was not inclined to sit down and write. Therefore, the writing assignment was not given. (We all need a break now and then.) I began the lesson reading The Pumpkin Book and Too Many Pumpkins . I started with The Pumpkin Book since there were many facts from this non-fiction book I wanted to cover. I also wanted to show students how to look for information they might be looking for in a book of this sort with information divided into chapters. I showed students the table of content, previously marked sections of interest to share, and used the table of contents to look for a topic of interest to students. I had used post-it tabs to mark the pages I wanted to make sure I showed the class and several students immediately noticed these blue tabs sticking out. I first explicitly told students that I used these removable sticky tabs which did not leave marks on the pages, came off without tearing the pages and were reusable because they marked the pages I wanted to be certain I shared with them and they did not harm the book. Then I proceeded to find places I marked and share the book. Then we went back to the table of contents to see if there was anything else they wanted to look for.

We looked at things like the legend of the Jack-o-Lantern, how to grow unusual pumpkins, things to make from pumpkins (even pumpkin tureens and how pioneers used dried pumpkin shells to store flour and grains). When we came to words students were unfamiliar with or new, I explained them such as a legend and a tureen. Students were very interested and asked a lot of questions. This was a very productive lesson.

After all the information I threw at them, I read a fun fiction book called Too Many Pumpkins. This allowed a comparison between fiction and non-fiction. Many students are getting very good at telling fiction from non-fiction books. The class really enjoyed this book and it gave them some additional ideas of things that could be made from pumpkins. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to create our pumpkin chart. They had sat long enough and could sit no longer. So, our pumpkin chart will have to wait until tomorrow. We did a different graph earlier today, so they did work on graphing. This will provide a start for tomorrow.

I directed them to get paint shirts (which immediately sparked their interest and the obvious question, "Are we going to paint?") We spread the newspaper, (Good thing it was newspaper day.) and went to work. Most turned out really well, even though students were not interested in my explanation of crayon resist. Unfortunately, our paint did not mix well and we had thin, runny, globbed paint, but the kids really didn't care. Despite this we had some neat pumpkins and the students were allowed to paint!

Bibliography

Gibbons, Gail., The Pumpkin Book., Scholastic Inc. 1999.

White, Linda., Too Many Pumpkins., Holiday House, 1996. Fowler, Allan., It's a Fruit, It's a Vegetable, It's a Pumpkin., Childrens Press, Chicago., 1995.

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