Grade 1: Unit 2- Our Environment: Lesson 1 REMIX
Grade 1: Our Environment- Lesson 1
Lesson Focus
What is an environment?
Lesson Overview
This lesson is intended as a unit opener. The students will go on a nature walk and then listen to a read aloud.
Teacher Planning and Preparation
The teacher should pre-read the text and mark the spots to “Stop and Jot.” For each stopping point, prepare a post-it note by jotting down the important event to include on the sequence chain or flow map. In addition to the post-it note, determine how to act out the event without words. To determine how to act out an event, select a motion that shows what the character is doing as well as a facial expression that shows how the character is feeling at that time.
See Lesson Procedure for suggested points to “Stop and Jot.”
If you choose to include the technology options, you will need to create the Padlet and AnswerGarden questions for students. Both of these Webtools are free. There are other Webtools available that will produce similar results.
Essential Questions
What is an environment?
How do we harm the environment?
How do we help the environment?
How can save the Earth?
How can we share our knowledge about the environment?
What role do I play in the environment?
The following websites provide alternate strategies and information for differentiation of lesson:
Apply appropriate elements of UDL
English Language Learners
Gifted Children
National Association for Gifted Children
Consider the need for Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) when selecting texts, and captioned/described video when selecting video or other media for this lesson.
Special Education and 504 LD Online
Prepare for small group/guided reading instruction by selecting appropriate text and materials. Make connections to the unit concept of Our Environment wherever possible.
Unit Standards Applicable to this Lesson
RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details
RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses
RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
Student Outcomes
After listening to a text and looking at illustrations, students will be able to:
- recall details from the text in order to retell the selection.
- sequence events in the text in order to retell the selection
- identify words that show feelings
Materials
Earth Is on Big Turtle’s Back, a Native American tale told by Patricia Ann Lynch, illustrations by David Shannon (can be found in Images magazine Ecology Volume 1 Number 7, published by D.C. Heath)
5 Senses graphic organizer, 1 per student or student devices
Clipboards, 1 per student, for nature walk or student devices
Pre-assessment
Assess students’ understanding of an environment by posing the question: What is in your environment?
Technology Option: Teachers create an answer garden (answergarden.ch) and allow students to respond with words or short phrases.
Lesson Procedure
- Take students on a nature walk and have them use their five senses to observe their surroundings. Students can record their responses in either pictures or writing. Students can use technology to create a “In My Environment” poster.
Technology Option 1- Teachers create a Padlet (padlet.com) for students to use to capture information and observations during the nature walk. Create the Padlet using the “Shelf” option and create headings for the 5 senses. Students can capture evidence by recording, taking pictures, or typing.
2. Allow time for students to share their observations from the nature walk. Guide students to the understanding that we use our 5 senses to learn about the world around us. All of the evidence that we captured is our environment. Ask students, "How did our environment come to be?" Allow students to Turn and Talk. Tell students they are going to read a Native American tale that explains how the world came to be. Read the title of the selection and show the students the cover of the book.
3. Use a Think Aloud to model how you would use the information on the cover to make a prediction about the text. Allow students to Turn and Talk with a partner about predictions they may have that are different from yours.
4. Read aloud Earth Is on Big Turtle’s Back by Patricia Lynch (Images Magazine Volume 1 Number 7). As you read, act out the important events (motion and facial expression) and then “stop and jot” events on a sequence chain graphic organizer or flow map. Invite students to act out the events as well. As part of the read aloud, the teacher will gradually release the responsibility for generating the ideas/sentences that will be recorded on the post-it note. The following sample text dependent questions may be used to build student understanding of the text and assist in identifying what should be included on the post-it notes for the sequence chain or flow map.
5. Read the first two pages. Discuss Sky Woman’s expression as she falls through the hole. Does the author use any words that make you think her falling might be a problem? The teacher then jots a sentence/idea down that reflects what has happened on these pages and shows the class how she would act it out.
6. Read the next two pages. Note the author’s sentences: “Duck dove under the water. He swam down, down. But Duck could not go deep enough.” Why does the author repeat the word “down”? What do you think will happen to Sky Woman? The teacher jots a sentence/idea down that reflects what has happened on these pages and asks students to turn and show a neighbor how they would show the feeling for that page.
7. Read the next two pages. Note the author’s sentences: “Loon swam down, down, down. But Loon could not go deep enough….Muskrat dove under the water. He swam down, down, down, down.” Discuss how the author repeats the word down more and more for each character. Ask the students, “Do you expect that the character will be successful in getting some earth? What are words/phrases the author uses that make you think so?”
8. Ask students to raise their hand when they have enough information to state a sentence/idea about what has happened. If all students raise their hand, have the students turn and talk to share their sentence/idea with a partner.
9. Note the author’s last 3 sentences: “At last he reached the bottom. Then Muskrat swam up, up, up,up. In his paw he held a tiny bit of earth.” Is this what you expected would happen? What details in the text helped you know? Now that Muskrat has a piece of earth, how do you think the characters will use it to help Sky Woman.
10. Read the last 2 pages. Release responsibility for the discussion to the students by asking them to turn and show a partner an expression that reflects what has happened in the selection. Then, ask for a few volunteers to share a sentence that goes along with their expression.
11. After you read, students can work in groups to create a dramatic /wordless retelling. Within each group, students will be assigned a particular event to portray with actions and expression. Then, each group will present their retelling to the class.
12. As an alternative to the dramatic / wordless retelling, the teacher can use a “Walk and Talk” activity to teach the students how to retell the selection. To begin the “Walk and Talk” students can identify the main events and record each event on a separate piece of 8 ½ by 11 paper. Then, assign a pair of students to a specific event. The students will create an illustration that portrays the assigned event. Illustrations will then be grouped to create a pictorial representation of the selection.
13. The teacher will then engage the children in ordering their illustrations to show the sequence of the story. Once the illustrations are ordered, the teacher can then place a complete set on the floor (creating a large size sequence chain) and model how to “walk and talk” the story by standing next to each picture and retelling what is occurring during that event. Additional sets of pictures can be laminated and placed in the classroom for the students to “walk and talk” during independent work time.
14. As a class, discuss whether each of the characters/events in the selection are realistic or not. Ask students if they think Earth Is on Big Turtle’s Back really happened.
15. Ask students if they believe that their environment always looked this way? Pose some of the following questions for discussion: What did our school environment look like 100 years ago? How did it change? Did it change in a positive way or a negative way? This discussion will provide the teacher with pre-assessment information for later on in the unit when students discuss how humans impact the environment in both positive and negative ways.
Lesson Extension
- As an extension of the “walk and talk,” students can generate sentences that go with each illustration and then the teacher can use the sentences for mini lessons on capitalization, punctuation, etc.
- Pose the question: How would your environment be different if you lived in another state/country? Allow students the opportunity to research a different environment.
Technology Option: To guide students through the research, teachers could create a Thinglink (thinglink.com) to provide students safe resources for researching.
Lesson Closure
Return to the pre-assessment question: What is in your environment? Discuss and develop what a possible definition for an environment. Guide them to the understanding that an environment is the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives.
Technology option: Have students add to the previous answer garden or create a new one answering the question: What is in your environment? Students can use the AnswerGarden and Padlet from the nature walk to develop a class definition of an environment.
Link the lesson to the focus question: What role did each of the character’s play in creating the environment?
Assessment
Teacher observation of the following:
- participation in class discussions
- contributions to class charts
- quality responses to questions
- participation in cooperative learning activities