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About Bugs Standards:
This lesson plan meets the following English Language Arts
Standards - Ela2b create a response to literature
Ela1b read and comprehend at least 4 books on same subject
or
Author.
Ela2a producing a report of information.
Objective: During the course of the study the children
will be able to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction
genres.
The children will be able to use reference books to obtain
information.
The children will be
able to make labeled diagrams.
The children will be exposed to a variety of literature about
bugs. |
Created
by:
Darcie Davidson
Location: PS 185
Grade: kindergarten
Subject: Language Arts
Length of time: Month long unit study If
you have any questions regarding this activity, please contact
duckey13@home.com
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Materials:
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- The Very Busy Spider
- The Very Lonely Firefly
- The Very Quiet Cricket
- The Clumsy Click Beetle
- The Grouchy Lady Bug (all books by Eric Carle)
- Beautiful Bugs (reference book)
- The Life Cycle of the Butterfly (non-fiction)
- Other books about bugs, especially butterflies.
- A handmade puppet of a caterpillar
- Card stock
- Drawing paper
- Chart paper
- Journals (made out of paper folded in half)
- Colored pens, crayons
- A variety of art materials (can be anything) with which to
make a visual representation of an egg, a caterpillar, a cocoon,
and a butterfly (from The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
Procedure:
Activity 1.
We created a KWL chart, documenting what the class knew
about bugs and what they wanted to know.
K - What do we know about bugs?
W - What do we think will happen?
L - What have we learned?
I used this information to pinpoint which bugs to pay the most attention
to. I also explained to the class that we were going to become experts
on butterflies and ladybugs, because towards the end of the unit
we would have our own insects in the classroom.
Activity 2.
Ela2b Produce a response to literature.
Earlier in the year I noticed that my children were having extreme
difficulty recognizing the days of the week. I decided to recreate
a story and utilize it to teach the concept of the days of the week.
I chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.
- I created a puppet show, which I had practiced in front of
my kindergarten class. The puppet was a handmade caterpillar,
which crawled across a calendar eating food. My children really
enjoyed it and seemed to be grasping the main ideas I was trying
to capture.
- With a small group of my children we made 'days of the week'
cards, writing the day and placing the appropriate food item next
to it.
- Another group created a key for the days of the week. Across
the top we wrote the days and underneath we drew the food that
went with it. This became part of our morning meeting charts.
It was a great success.
- I had the students drawing their favorite part of The
Very Hungry Caterpillar. The main focus was that they
drew accounts of the story, (which can sometimes be difficult
with younger children).
- On another day we broke up the story into four main parts:
the egg, the caterpillar, the cocoon, and the butterfly.
- The class split into four groups, creating a visual representation
of each part. They used a variety of materials and worked
cooperatively to complete the project.
- Individually they wrote about an aspect of the stage they
were creating.
- With one of my guided reading groups, we wrote out the parts
of the story.
- We began by the students dictating to me, while I wrote
on sentence strips.
- I placed the sentence strips on the floor in the order
they were given to me.
- We read the story, and realized that it was out of order.
We moved things around, and read it again. We continued this
process until we all agreed that the story was in the correct
order and made sense.
Activity 3.
E1b Read and comprehend at least four books on the same subject, or
by the same author, or in the same genre.
We conducted an author's study based on Eric Carle's "Very" series.
We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very
Busy Spider, The Very Lonely Firefly,
The Very Quiet Cricket, The Clumsy Click Beetle
and The Grouchy Lady Bug.
- For each book read, the students did a writing response.
- We made a chart listing characteristics of an Eric Carle Story.
Some of our findings included: his signature, the similarities
of the colors and their use, repetition of a line, and the time
frame of a day/days.
- We created a graph listing four of the stories.
- The children placed a sticker on their favorite story.
- We discussed the outcome and made generalizations.
- We took our two favorite stories and created a Venn diagram.
- The two stories were, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
and The Lonely Firefly. The children discovered
that both stories started with an egg opening in the sunlight.
Both bugs were in search of something, and in the end
they were happy and grown.
- The major difference noted was that the caterpillar
was hungry and the firefly couldn't find his friends.
- It was amazing to see the connection that the children
made between the two stories. One child suggested that
the firefly should have looked for food with the caterpillar
and they would be friends.
- I wanted to introduce non-fiction literature to the students.
- I began with The Life Cycle of the Butterfly,
a non-fiction book about butterflies.
- We read the story and documented the information that we
had learned from the story.
- We went back to The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
and compared the two stories.
- We discussed the elements of the fiction story that made
it "fake" (as my kids would say).
- We made a Venn diagram and came to the conclusion that
Eric Carle took a very true story and added fictitious parts.
(We discovered that the same was true of other stories written
by him.)
- We created a chart describing both genres.
- I also introduced a reference book Beautiful Bugs.
We discovered as a class that this wasn't a continuous story.
I showed them how to use the table of contents (which happen to
be pictures with a number next to it). During reading time I saw
several children choosing this book, looking at the table of contents
and finding a particular bug.
Activity 3.
E2a Producing a report of information
We brought caterpillars into the classroom, and on their arrival,
the children began to keep journals. They took several observations,
and recorded what they saw. I used this activity to access the children's
observational skills. Before each writing session we discussed what
made a good entry:
- (Writing Process) Each entry should have a date, a picture
and at least one sentence explaining what they saw.
- We reviewed what non-fiction was vs. fiction.
- The students volunteered their statements and self-accessed
which genre it fit into.
Student Assessment:
- Based on their ability to report to others their findings.
- Ability to make a chart.
- Comprehension was assessed by contribution to charts and writing
responses.
Teachers' Notes:
The excitement of the children was outstanding. They enjoyed all learning
experiences and appreciated the opportunity to see what they had learned
in action. We looked at the caterpillars on a daily basis and the
children were able to accurately describe the stage and predict what
would happen next.
I invited other classes, staff developers and administration to the
room on several occasions. My children were the reporters. They explained
what the caterpillars were doing, and how they were doing it (for
example, breathing and eating.).
They taught the audience and were able to answer most of the questions
asked. Their self-esteem was boosted and I was able to see who learned
what and how much.
Something incredible happened and I couldn't end this lesson plan
without sharing it:
During our classroom independent reading time, one of my children
noticed that a cocoon was shaking. I stopped the class and arranged
them around the net. The class sat in silence for fifteen minutes
watching the butterfly emerging from the cocoon. It was amazing. Afterward
we wrote an experience chart. I must say I received the most thought
out, accurate and complete observations after this experience.
Final Activity: Once we had butterflies in the room, we went
out into the schoolyard and decided a place for their release. The
next sunny day we brought the net outside and released the butterflies.
The children had their journals with them and they made their final
entry while outside. |
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