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 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)Students will need a sharpened pencil and markers or crayons.

          2)I will need the books: Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell and The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons to read to students, scissors for each student, materials to create pumpkin journals (one sheet of orange construction paper and fives sheets of writing paper cut in half for each student), a stapler, an enlarged pumpkin picture, chart paper and a marker.

     B. Students are arranged at tables with up to four students at a table for seat work. During shared reading, shared writing and graph creations, students sit on the carpet.

     C.            1.) I will first introduce the topic of pumpkins as our focus for the week. The first project will be to create individual pumpkin journals to write about our topic. I will show students an orange sheet of construction paper (1/2 of a full sheet) with a jack-o-lantern face on it, another (1/2) sheet of orange construction paper with just the outline of a pumpkin on it, These will make the cover for their journals. Show students the paper that will be stapled inside to make their journals. (The Five sheets of writing paper are cut in half to create ten writing pages.) Explain to the students they are to color the eyes, nose, mouth and stem of the pumpkin face with either markers or crayons since it is on construction paper, then cut along the outside of both the jack-o-lantern and the pumpkin outline with the scissors I hand out . When students have finished, they are to raise their hand so I can add their pages and complete their journals. Each journal will have five sheets of writing paper cut in half to make ten pages in each journal.

           2.) When the journals have been completed, students are will be given their first assignment of writing everything they already know about pumpkins. Spelling is not expected to be perfect, students are expected to sound out words and write to best of their ability. I will allow approximately ten minutes of writing time. Explain to students that this will help them to see how much they know about pumpkins and later to see what they have learned.

          3.) After students write, call students to the carpet to make a chart on chart paper of all the things students have come up with about pumpkins. Then read the book Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night to students. Talk about how the little boy creates paper pumpkins in anticipation of going to the pumpkin patch, all the different pumpkins he finds at the pumpkin patch and any other things the little boy notices at the pumpkin patch. Ask students if the book is fiction of non-fiction after reading it and why. What kind of information did this book give students? Did the book tell students anything they did not already know?

          4.)Tell students that as they are anticipating their trip to the pumpkin farm, perhaps they too would like to create their own paper pumpkins. Hand students a half sheet of orange construction paper with the instruction to draw, color and then cut out their own pumpkin. With all of their pumpkins we will make a pumpkin patch. This is a free hand project giving the students the opportunity to make any size and shape of pumpkins. ( With the excess paper students cut off, they may make a pumpkin to take home.           5.) Follow with The Pumpkin Book if time permits to close. This is a non-fiction fact book about pumpkins with a lot of information broken into chapters. Does not have to be read from cover to cover. I have marked interesting pages with post-it tabs. This will also serve as an illustration to students that books of this type do not necessarily have to be read all the way through and that interesting pages can be marked without damaging the pages for future reference. Tell students that I have marked the pages I particularly wanted to share with them. Show students the table of contents to start with and how to use this page.

               b)

4. Evaluation: Students will be assesses on following directions, if they write on topic in their journals, and listening and participating.

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. I will record student progress in each area according to the above rubric. The journals will serve as evidence of their writing.

     C. As this lesson is an introduction to our unit, I intend to continue with additional books and activities to support existing knowledge and explore new facts. Time factors and students interest will determine how much is covered in later lessons.

5. Feedback:
The pumpkin journal [activity] was very well planned. The students were excited about it and they had some very good ideas. This lesson is very well thoughtout and I really like the activities.

6. Reflection: Students remembered reading books about the green theme earlier this year. This helped to make a connection to a different topic using books while adding writing to the agenda. Students were very excited about the pumpkin journals. They loved being able to use their markers, cut and almost all actually were very eager to write. So eager that several started writing without listening to what they were to write about, even after I gave the instruction several times. In part, I was just as excited to see their eagerness. The journals themselves turned out great and even those whose are struggling to write had the opportunity to share their existing knowledge during our shared writing creating the first of our KWL charts. The students were able to share many facts they knew about pumpkins such as: they have seeds, they are orange, making jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie. I also wrote this chart in Orange marker to go along with the theme. I believe the hands on activities really helped to get students involved and interested.

      Students intently listened to the book Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night with few interruptions. We had some good discussions about what the character saw at the pumpkin patch and the different pumpkins he pointed out and the students almost immediately connected the characters trip to our pending field trip to Eckert's Pumpkin Farm. I feel today was a very successful lesson although it was lengthy. Yet today was also a set up for lessons to follow and leading up to our field trip which students are very excited about. Only a few students either wrote off topic because they did not listen. Many made some very commendable efforts in their writing, which indicated their interest. I look forward to continuing this topic and how far the students will progress in any or all areas. The major stumbling point in this room is behavioral issues which often interrupt our lessons. Today this was at an record low during my lesson.

     As this lesson did take a large block of time even though everything was done in a timely manner, we did not have time to look at The Pumpkin Book. There is a lot of information in this book and I should have planned it for another day anyway. I was eager to share it and overplanned. Another short book would have been a better choice. I will try to use this book tommorrow or Wednesday with time permitting. Also, I overloaded a bit with the activities. I should have spread them out more over the remaining days. Today's book choices should have been moved to another day to spread out the action and timing. Tommorrow I will continue with one book and have students write about what they want to learned about pumpkins.

     Rockwell, Anne., Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night., Scholastic Inc., 1999. [Illustrated by Megan Halsey]

Lesson Two B | Lesson Three B | Lesson Four B | Lesson Five B