“ The Grouchy Ladybug” – First Grade – Lesson Plan

Fluency in reading is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. One of the most effective ways to build fluency is through repeated readings of the same text. Some researchers hold that text should be reread at least four times in order to build on fluency. Often, it’s a difficult task to get early readers to get enthusiastic about rereading the same text. This is why stories that repeat the same sentences throughout the text provide both building fluency and reading motivation.

Grade Level : First Grade Lesson Plan

Benchmark Description :

LA.1.1.1.1 – Locate the title, names of author and illustrator.

LA.1.1.5.1 – Apply letter-sound knowledge to decode phonetically regular words quickly and accurately in isolation and in context.

LA.1.1.5.2 – Recognize high frequency and familiar words in isolation and in context.

LA.1.1.5.3 – Adjust reading rate based on purpose, text difficulty, form, and style.

Objectives:

Students will build reading fluency through repeated readings of the text.

Students will apply letter-sound knowledge to decode phonetically regular words quickly and accurately in isolation and in context.

Students will learn new vocabulary (aphids, insist, suggest).

Materials:

“The Grouchy Ladybug Story” by Eric Carle

Journals

Sentence strips.

Procedures:

1. Teacher reads “The Grouchy Ladybug Story” by Eric Carle, aloud.

2. Teacher and students reread the story aloud together.

3. Have the student practice reading a passage with emotion, to emphasize expression and      intonation.

4. Students are grouped together for paired reading.

5. Students are given a sentence strips with text on it. Students then cut apart the words in    sentences and reconstruct the sentences again.

Assessment:

Teacher will informally assess student’s progress on fluency.

Teacher will informally assess student’s ability to reconstruct the story sentence.

Students will write and illustrate a new ending to the story in their journals.

Extension Activities:

Students prepare “The Grouchy Ladybug” performance during which every student takes a part and rehearses his/her lines(s).

Pictograph – Math Lesson Plan

Pictograph Lesson Plan

Grade Level: Second & Third Grade

Benchmark: MA.3.S.7.1 - Construct and analyze pictographs and tally charts from data, including data collected through observations, surveys, and experiments.

Instructional Goal: Students will be able to create pictographs by using data from the

tally chart.

Result of Analysis

Instructional Need: Students need to be able to use their prior knowledge of

tallies and tally charts in order to be able to learn how to create pictographs.

Instructional Analysis:

Cognitive: Reading tallies, tally charts, using the key, creating pictograph,

identifying difference between tally chart and pictograph, making

comparisons between tally chart and pictograph, recognizing patterns,

verbalizing their findings and graph creation.

Psychomotor: Students will use computer mouse during their internet

session.

Affective: none

Entry skills/knowledge: Students will have knowledge of tallies and tally charts.

Conditions and Constraints: Students will need peaceful and engaging environment

with plenty of time to transfer data from tally chart into a pictograph. Students will need

to have individual computers for the second session of the lesson plan.

Learner Analysis: The learners are second or third grade students. They should have a

solid knowledge of tallies and tally chart. At the same time, students need to be able to

listen and participate through two forty-five minute lectures.

Learning Objectives

Objective 1 – cognitive

A . Second/Third graders will identify, create, and read tallies.

B Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the tally chart by individually filling out the data in the tally

chart.

C   Students will fill out the tally charts individually during class.

D. Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of tallies withat least 60% accuracy.

Objective 2 -cognitive

A. Second/Third grade students will be able to create a pictograph.

B.  Students will be able to demonstrate their ability to complete the pictograph by using the key and data from the tally chart.

C. Second/Third grade students will create their pictographs in their notebooks during math class.

D Students will demonstrate ability to complete the pictograph with at least 60% accuracy.

Objective 3 -cognitive

A. Second/Third grade students will identify relationships between tally chart and pictograph.

B. Students will be able to describe the presentation of information in the tally chart and the pictograph.

C. Students will describe relationships between tally and pictograph chart in the written form in their

note books.

D. Second grade students will identify relationships between tally chart and pictograph with 80% accuracy.

Objective 4 -cognitive

A  Second/Third grade students will be able to check accuracy of their work.

B Second/Third grade students will double check accuracy of their work by working backwards from pictograph to tally chart.

C   Second/Third grade students will double check accuracy of their work in their notebooks during math class.

D   Second/Third grade students will double check their work with 80% accuracy.

Objective 5 -cognitive

A   Students will practice beginning multiplication concepts.

B  Second/Third grade students will practice multiplication while using the key to convert tally data into a pictograph.

C   Second/Third grade students will practice multiplication while completing their assignment during math class.

D. Second/Third graders will practice multiplication while creating pictographs with at least 60% accuracy.

Total

Graphing Assessment

Selected response items:

1. Circle the correct answer. What does the scale on the graph go up by?

1. 5

2. 1

3. 2

4. 4

2. Circle the correct answer. Which color is the least popular?

1.green

2.pink

3.blue

4.red

3.How many people like green?

1.4

2.6

3.1

4.2

4.Tally marks are written as groups of how many lines?

1.2

2.4

3.5

4.6

5.How many people is the key worth?

1.4

2.3

3.2

4.1

Constructed response:

1.Using the key and the data from the tally chart, how many people liked blue?

_________

2. Six people like red. Please fix the graph.

3. Explain how you use the tally data to construct the pictograph.

4.If the key is worth two people, how much is half of person worth?

______

5.Explain how you can check your work by working back from pictograph to the

tally chart.

© 2009 Mrs. Helena & www.ReadingIsFun.me

Pictograph Lesson Plan

Pilgrims – The Story of Thanksgiving – Magic Tree House Guide

Pilgrims- by Mary Pope Osborne –  Magic Tree House (Nonfiction) Research Guide

This is one of the best children’s nonfiction books about Thanksgiving. It is ideal for any age group, especially primary students who are discovering their first chapter books, and for elementary school teachers’ lesson plans.

The book describes the lives of Pilgrims and the origin of Thanksgiving in an interesting and engaging way.

Happy Reading!

Friend or Fiend? by Judy Blume- The Best First Chapter Book

Friend or Fiend? by Judy Blume-
If you where looking for a great first chapter book for your child, this is the one. The stories are about a brother and sister, the Pain and the Great One. Unlike many other first chapter books, in which kids are badly behaved, Blume’s characters are just adorable, funny, and interesting. You will enjoy reading these chapters as much as your child.
Happy Reading!

Tacky the Penguin – Helen Lester- Something for Laughs

Tacky the Penguin- by Helen Lester- Something To Make Kids Laugh

Tacky is an odd bird. He does not blend in with other penguins. He has his own style, his own way of greeting and marching and splashing… And when he sings, others wish that he’d stop, but one day when the hunters come to hunt for penguins, Tacky saves the day. You’ll have to find out how.. This is a perfect story for 4-8 years olds. They will laugh and ask for a reread.

Happy Reading!

Math in Primary Grades – Math Their Way

There is something about primary grade math that is very confusing to young children. I am not saying that teachers are not doing a good job teaching math, but there seems to be a lack of understanding on how children process math and what concepts are they ready to grasp. It is important for teachers to understand that children do not transfer knowledge the same way adults do.

I am not sure what causes math confusion in first grade. It should be simple, teach the fundamentals and let the children grasp concepts and build on it. But hey, that would be just too obvious. We teach our first graders abstract thinking. We present material in non-sequential order ( ex.- Everyday Mathematics) . We expect them to already know what we are teaching. Assessment, assessment, assessment.

Kindergartners and First Graders are rushed through the numbers. Counting by twos, fives, and tens is taught through rote memorization. And if you ask any of these kids what comes after 10, they will often say 20.

We need to teach children the way they learn. Fundamentals of math, and they need to be presented in sequence.

Here is a great site with good downloads. Hope that you find it useful. It has a number of math activities that will help your child learn math in a fun engaging way.

http://www.center.edu/NEWSLETTER/newsletter.shtml

Something for Parents- Attention Games for Kids

Attention Games by Barbara Sher

It has been a long fun summer, and there is still more to go. The kids have been enjoying the long summer days filled with fun. A couple of days ago in the library, I came across this wonderful book filled with great attention games for kids of all ages. Games that teach taking turns, calming down, patterns, counting, measuring, you name it. It even has a game that you and your child can play when he/she is afraid of monsters at  night. This is a definite keeper for every parent. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Reading Fluency K-2

Once children know their letters and can read simple CVC words, such as cat, dog, hat, they are ready to take a next step. But this next step can cause frustration in both children and parents.

Students come out of kindergarten reading letter by letter. And if they are not taught word families, they continue to read letter by letter even when words get bigger. This impedes decoding, fluency, and comprehension, and causes great stress.

To address this, students should be taught word families, as I noted in one of my previous posts. Word family study is often referred as “chunking”. Students learn to “chunk words” by learning rhyme patterns/word families. For example…

-ash

dash

smash

rash

trash

Hooked on Phonics books are great for learning and teaching word families and chunking. Hooked on Phonics books progress in difficulty and each story reviews words/word families prior to child’s reading. As with other phonics material, stories don’t offer much of a story line, but they are good practice of word families/chunking.

More on High Frequency Words…

Here is a bit more about high frequency words. Being able to automatically recognize high frequency words will help your child read more fluently. High frequency words have to be memorized, for the most part, since their spelling often does not make sense.

According to Edward Fry, the following 25 words make up one third of all text in English.

I     a     and   he    to

is    are   have    that   of

in    you     it   was     for

on     as   with    his    they

at       be     this     have   from

How to help Kindergartner memorize words?

How to help Kindergartner memorize words?

Kids in kindergarten will have to memorize a lot of new words. These words will be sight words (they are also called red words, or high frequency words, etc). Kids should memorize them so they can recognize them right away in text, since these are the most used words in the language. Anyhow, how do we get our kids to learn them?

Here are some suggestions:

*  Make sentences with new words. Make the sentences personal to kids. Include their names in it or activities that they do. Write it down for your child and show him/her how the new word fits into a sentence.

* Take any easy to read book. It could be Dr. Seuss books, Dora book, Blues Clues, Harold, Biscuit, Fancy Nancy, or any other that they like. Have your child look for his/her new word in it. These books are full of sight words that are learned in Kindergarten and First Grade.

* Write them out on cards. Get a box, and keep the word cards in it, so that you can go back to it and review them often. Kindergarten and First Grade kids learn an enormous amount of words every day.

It takes six or more times of exposure to the word in different concepts before a child has a full knowledge of how to use the word and what it means. English is complex, and even if our children know the word by memory, their understanding of it is still only partial. With exposure, they gain understanding and confidence, as well as, the ability to learn more words and grow larger vocabulary.

Happy Reading!