Hayley Platz 1

Lesson Plan
GRADE LEVEL: One/Two SUBJECT: Literacy UNIT/TOPIC: Group Book
Project
LESSON #: 1 DURATION: 35 min
Overview & GLOs

SLOs

In this lesson, the student will listen and

view the story Once Upon an Alphabet:
Short Stories for all of the Letters by Oliver
Jeffers. After the story, the students will
write and illustrate their own one-page
short story on a letter from the alphabet,
based on their own personal experiences,
thoughts, feelings and ideas.

EXPRESS IDEAS AND DEVELOP

UNDERSTANDING
-Share personal experiences that are clearly
related to oral, print and other media texts

Students will listen, read, speak, write, view

and represent to explore thoughts, ideas,
feelings and experiences.

Materials Needed:
Once Upon an Alphabet:
Short Stories for all the
Letters By: Oliver Jeffers

-Talk with others about something recently

learned
EXPERIMENT WITH LANGUAGE AND
FORMS
-Experiment with different ways of exploring
and developing stories ideas and
experiences

Other Resources
used:

Additional Notes:

Alberta Program of Studies

Vocabulary:
Menagerie a collection of
strange people or things
Accurate
Disaster
Enigma Something
puzzling like a riddle
Glacier a big body of ice;
moves
Ingenious original,
inventive skill and
imagination
Incognito in a disguise
Lumberjack
Matter occupies space
and has mass
Molecule what matter is
made up of
Parsnip
Typist
Vanquished defeated
Victorious
Zeppelin

Today we are going to read

one of my favorite stories! It

The author is Oliver

Jeffers. He illustrated

Large White Paper

Markers/crayons/pencils

INTRODUCTION

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TRANSITION
BODY

is a collection of short
stories, one story for every
letter of the alphabet!

one of our other

favorite books; The
Day the Crayons Quit!

Class will move to the

carpet area and get ready to
listen to the story.
The teacher will read Once
Upon an Alphabet by
Oliver Jeffers to the
students.

Alight! Sit with an

Excellent X!

During the story, we will

pause at the words on the
vocabulary list, asking
questions to check for
understanding.
The teacher will also ask
students to pay attention to
the letters, looking for the
letter that their name begins
with; connections within the
story.

Do you know what _____

means?
Who can tell me what
_____ is?
(create connections
where possible to
recent material
covered, crosscurricular references or
personal as well!)

Can you see how the

author used things such
After the story, the teacher
as certain animals,
will ask the students to think places or plants that
about how they would write
begin with the letter
their own story about
the story is for?
themselves. Each student
will be assigned a letter (i.e.
the first letter in their name)
to write a one-page story as
well as a picture for their
story. They can include what
they like to do, play, eat, or
what they dont like.
Anything about themselves.
After, all the pages will be
combined to create a
classroom story book.
In this lesson, students will
begin to work on their own
story, writing a rough draft.

TRANSITION

Alright class! Everyone

hand in your stories so far
and we will continue to work
on them during next class!

CLOSURE

Today we began creating

our own class story using
the letters of the alphabet.
We wrote a story about

If you were the author,

what story would you
write for the letter S?
What characters would
you include that start
with an S?
Alright! Lets get
started! Time to write
our own story for our
very own letter!

Hayley Platz 3
ourselves, what we like or
dont like. Did you learn
anything new about
anyone? Would anyone like
to share what they have so
far?

Teacher Guide
Objectives
(Specifically
skills/information
that will be learned)

Verification (Steps to
check for student
understanding)

Activity (Describe
the independent
activity to reinforce
this lesson)

The students will listen and

view the story being told,
commenting on the different
experiences of the
characters in the book as a
group. After, they will begin
to think of ways they can
tell/express their own
experiences, likes and/or
dislikes in the form of a onepage story which they will
print and illustrate. The
students will also be able to
move around, sharing their
ideas with others.
-Observation during the
story
-Class discussion;
vocabulary
-Writing their own story;
moving around the room
doing check-ins with
students

By writing their own story,

as well as illustrating it, the
students are able to connect
their prior knowledge to the
lesson and also express
their own thoughts, feelings
and experiences with the
rest of the class.
This way they are able to
share their experiences with
the class orally, as well as in
the form of a book (written
and illustrated)

NOTES:

Student Guide
TSW construct their own
story for a specific letter of
the alphabet.
TSW tell their own story for
their letter.
TSW illustrate their own
story.

Formative assessment:
-Observing the students
during the story telling
activity
-Checking for understanding
during vocabulary check-ins
-Having students explain
vocabulary in their own
words
-Thumbs up/down to show
understanding of activity
after direction is given
-Observations/check-ins
during the writing activity
The students are able to
connect to the material; in
this case the story, by
taking on the role of the
author and creating their
own story with personal
experiences, thoughts,
feelings and expressing
them to others.

Hayley Platz 4
Remember to have students fold their paper at the bottom of the page,
leaving approx. one third of the page at the bottom for printing their story!
You can also ask the students to draw straight lines with a ruler for neater
printing!