Title: Halloween Short Stories

Subject/Grade Level: Second Grade Writing

Time Requirements: 1 hour
Materials:
Short story example
lined paper
pencils
scary sentence starters
pumpkin clipart
white board
overhead projector
Type of Lesson: This lesson is formatted in the I do, we do, you
do format where students will first participate in a cooperative
introduction to the topic, followed by listening as a whole group
to the example short story read and written by the teacher (I do).
The we do part of the lesson will be a student lead, whole group
participation in the writing of a class example story, and lastly,
the students will individually write their Halloween stories, and
then share them with a partner.
Standards: Write narratives in which they recount a well
elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to
describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to
signal event order, and provide sense of closure. (2.W.3)
Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate short story
writing that includes details, actions, thoughts/feelings, and the
use of temporal words.
Anticipatory Set: A group discussion about adjectives that could
be used to describe a pumpkin followed by the short story
example reading. TW draw a pumpkin on a large sheet of butcher
paper to grab the students attention since the lesson will be

taught around Hallowedd.TW read the objective out loud to the

students and describe what temporal words are.
Questions: Students will be asked to describe the pumpkin, then
they will be asked if they know what describing words are called.
If the students need prompting, teacher will ask if they know
what type of word the word pumpkin is. Is it an action? Is it a
person? Once the students come up with the word noun, teacher
will ask if anyone knows what a word is called that describes a
noun. With ample wait time, if necessary, teacher will then give a
student friendly definition. Teacher will then ask the students to
listen for a beginning, middle, and end as the teacher example
piece is read aloud. Volunteers will be asked to recall what
happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and
what key temporal words helped them figure this out. After the
class forms a story together, students will be asked as a table
group to discuss if their class story has a beginning middle and
end, and if it does, what happened during each. If it doesnt,
teacher will take suggestions on what the class can add to add
some details about events in order to create or better the missing
part. Teacher will then ask a reminder question of, what is an
adjective? And expect a whole group answer. Students will then
be asked to write their own stories, choosing one of the prompts.
During the you do independent practice, teacher will be walking
around, doing informal assessment and asking students questions
about their stories and if their chain of events makes sense when
read aloud.
Modeling: Modeling of the teachers work when reading the short
story and then modeling how to write the short story when
forming one as a whole class.
Guided Practice: Guided practice will happen in the we do
portion of the lesson when students begin to form their class

Halloween story using one of the given prompts. Scaffolding will

happen as the teacher listens to student responses and plot
suggestions. Teacher will assess students understanding of the
given task by listening to and reading the story they are creating.
TW monitor and adjust instructions and scaffold as necessary. If
students need more help, teacher will ask for a student to recall
the introduction to the teacher example story, the problem or
event and then lastly the solution. TW ask them to keep the story
in mind as they form the class story and then go on to form
theirs.
Independent Practice: SW write their own Halloween stories
using one of the five given prompts for the you do part of the
lesson. SW focus on having a clear beginning, middle and end.
Teacher will scaffold and informally assess as they walk around
reading stories and listening to students.
Closure: TW gather students on the rug after they have shared
their stories with a friend, and ask students about what they
learned. After students share what they learned and what they
did, TW ask students the question, did we meet our objective?.
Assessment/Evaluation: SW be considered successful in
meeting the objective if they were able to form a story with a
beginning middle and end. TW look for details in the story and
key temporal words. Tw use the stories as a summative
assessment in addition to the closing discussion. Tw be doing
formative assessments as they walk around during the you do,
reading the stories and listening to student discussions while
scaffolding.
Modifications/Differentiation: For students with IEP goals,
teacher will adjust the learning goals/objective to meet the
individual needs. Students may be asked to just write a begging
to their story or verbally create one as another student helps

them record it. Students may also be able to use a picture to

show a story with a beginning middle and end. Depending on the
level of language development for an ELL student, teacher can
give them a paragraph that has blank spaces in the text. The
students can write the word or phrase that completes the
sentence, allowing the student to write an amount that is not
overwhelming. For a more advanced ELL, they can be given
paragraph prompts or be allowed to look in a book with
Halloween stories, but must put the idea in their own words.

Title: Once Upon a Question Mark

Grade Level: Third
Objective: SW be able to write and identify questions, generate
their own questions, and read with punctuation marks in mind.
Standards: Ask and answer questions about information from a
speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. (3.SL.3)
Materials:
Summer Camp Worksheet
Question Marks Worksheet
Notebooks
Sentence Strips
White board and Marker
Question mark cards
Lesson Introduction (10 minutes)
TW pass out summer camp worksheets. TW Read the passage
aloud, not using inflection.TW discuss the missing punctuation
marks. For example: How would the story sound if I used a
question mark here? How does punctuation tell us to read?Show
students the symbol for the question mark.Instruct them to write
the symbol in their notebooks.Explain that a question mark is
used at the end of an asking sentence.
Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (15 minutes)
Write a list of question words on board, such as why, how, and
when.Have students generate a list of question sentences
beginning with one of the question words listed.Record your
students' sentences on the board.Encourage students to read
sentences with correct intonation and pitch.

Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (15 minutes)

TW give students cards with a question mark.Explain that they
will listen to some sentences and raise the question mark card
when they hear an asking sentence.Make up various sentences,
and have students respond by raising the question mark card if it
is an asking sentence.
Independent Working Time (20 minutes)
Write different types of sentences on board, modeled after the
ones on the worksheet. Instruct students to write these
sentences in their notebooks and put a question mark where
appropriate.
Enrichment: Give students the Summer Camp 2 worksheet to
complete. Have them fill in the blanks with the correct
punctuation marks.Support: Instruct students to complete the
Question Words worksheet to become familiar with common
question words.
Review Assessment (5 minutes)
Circulate and offer help where needed.
Review and Closing (5 minutes)
Invite students to the rug to explain what they have learned.Have
students come up with sentences, and direct them to take turns
marking the sentence with a partner.

Title: Greater Than or Less Than

Objective: Students should be able to reason mathematically
(i.e. identify greater and lesser numbers) and solve small
problems concerning mathematical comparisons
PREREQUISITIES: Familiarity with the counting numbers.
Recognition of number groupings. Practice with different
locomotor skills, dodging, and fleeing.
Grade level: 1-3
Materials:
Fifty (50) 4x6 index cards with greater than/less than equations
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Dodging, fleeing, and various locomotor skills
Anticipatory Set:
First, students will model the greater than and less than signs.
Two groups of students numbering two and three respectively will
be selected. To do this, two groups will stand in front of the class
separated by a generous space. The instructor will begin a
discussion about which group is the biggest and which group is
the smallest. After students have identified the "big" group and
the "small" group, the instructor will select a middle man. The
instructor will illustrate the greater than and the less than sign
using his arms. In addition, the instructor will explain that the
widest part of the sign always eats the biggest number and the
point of the sign is always directed toward the smallest number.
Then, the middle man (aka Pac-Man) arranges himself correctly in
the human equation. The instructor will illustrate several more
examples using the students as models.
Activity: As a culminating movement activity, the students will
engage in a Math Tag game (similar to Freeze Tag). Depending on
the size of the class 4-6 students will be chosen as chasers. Each

chaser has cards that are marked with greater than and less than
equations that require a true or false response. Upon being
tagged, the chaser gives the fleer an equation card. If answered
correctly, the chaser and fleer change roles. The chasers continue
to use a new card with a different equation, so that a variety of
math equations can be utilized. Once outside, teacher will
demonstrate the interaction with a volunteer student. Teacher will
ask students if they have any questions. The tag game will
require using a variety of locomotor skills including walking,
crawling, skipping, hopping and jumping as different modes of
fleeing. Each time a new skill is required, TW show students a
reminder of what the skill looks like (previous knowledge of the
skill is necessary).
Closure:
Teacher will lead the students in a group stretching session and
take four volunteers to explain why physical education and fitness
is important.

Title: Christopher Columbus

Subject/Grade Level/Dates: American History/Kindergarten
Time requirements: Approx. 45 min
Materials list:
Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky illustrated by
Norman Green
Put a sentence together worksheet, & Christopher Columbus
scrambled sentence squares (5 sentences)
Crayons and pencils
Type of Lesson: Whole group for read aloud and cooperative
discussion, individual for worksheet completion at table groups
Connection to Standards:
Social Studies Standards
Strand 1: American History: Concept 3: Exploration and
Colonization, PO1: recognize that explorers (e.g., Columbus, Leif
Ericson) traveled to places in the world that were new to them
English and Language Arts Standards
Reading: (K.RI.1) : With prompting and support, ask and
answer questions about key details in a text. (K.RI.2) : With
prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key
details of a text.
Writing: (K.W.2) : Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and
writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they
name what they are writing about and supply some information
about the topic. (K.W.8) : With guidance and support from adults,
recall information from experiences or gather information from
provided sources to answer a question.

Language: (K.L.1) : Demonstrate command of the

conversations of Standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
a. Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
b. Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
c. Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/
d. Understand and use question words (interrogatives)
e. Use the most frequently occurring prepositions
f. Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language
activities.
(K.L.2): Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard
English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
a. Capitalize the first words in a sentence and the pronoun I.
b. Recognize and name end punctuation.
c. Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel
sounds (phonemes)
d. Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of
sound-letter relationships.
Instructional objective: Students will be able to recall and
describe the explorations of Christopher Columbus.
Active Instructional Plan:

Anticipatory Set

Teacher
Behaviors

Student
Behaviors

Gather students
at rug by the
overhead, and
read Christopher
Columbus by
Stephen Krensky
to the whole
group. Book
describes the
journey of

Students should
listen attentively
and pay attention
to the key details
of the story.

Columbus in
discovering new
land.
Questions

Ask students:
what did
Christopher
Columbus travel
on across the
ocean? Have you
ever traveled on
a boat before?
Where did you go
and what did you
see? How do you
think Columbus
knew where he
was going? What
did Columbus
find? Did he
meet anybody, if
so, who? Why is
Christopher
important to us
today?

Students will
participate in
group discussion,
answer questions
asked by teacher,
and listen to
other students
responses.

Modeling

TW show the
students the
pictures in the
story and
describe
unknown
attributes of the
pictures as
needed. Write on
the board the
objectives for the
lesson. After the

Students will be
watching what
the teachers are
writing, and
listening to their
instructions for
the worksheet.
Students will ask
questions if they
need clarification
or want an
extension on the

guided practice,
material
teachers will pass discussed.
out the five
different
scrambled
sentences to the
students after
the discussion.
Guided Practice

TW have
students do a
buddy talk about
what they know,
assist any
students having
difficulty recalling
information. TW
ask the students
meaningful
questions to help
with the
recollection of
facts from the
story, and aid the
story retelling if
necessary. TW
then go over the
directions for the
worksheet step
by step and
answer any
questions if
needed.

Students will be
part of a buddy
talk in which they
will share facts
with each other
and then share
them with the
whole group.
With guidance,
students will
provide and
recall the factual
information from
the story and
answer questions
as a group before
starting their
independent
worksheets.
Students will
listen to the
instructions for
the worksheet

Independent
Practice

TW walk around
Students will be
classroom
seated at their
observing
normal table
student work and groups with their

Closure

answering
questions to
scaffold learning.
TW guide and
facilitate student
thinking as the
worksheet is
being completed.

worksheet,
materials, and
scrambled
sentences.
Students will first
put the sentence
in the correct
order above their
worksheet so
that they can see
it in order to
write it. Students
will then write
their sentence in
the lines provided
and in the space
below, then draw
a picture of it.

TW gather
students back on
the rug for
closure and a
final wrap up
discussion. One
student per each
table group will
be called upon
and asked to
share what they
wrote and drew
about.

Students will
gather back
together as a
whole group on
the rug. Students
will then raise
hands, and
answers
questions when
called upon.
Students will
connect their new
knowledge about
World History
and Columbus to
their own lives
and experiences.
Students will be

sharing what
they worked on
with the class.
Assessment/Evaluation: Teacher will be watching and listening
for student involvement. Upon the initial discussion, students
should have a good idea about what was just read to them and
be able to recall most of the main points from the story. Students
should be actively involved in the buddy discussion as well as the
group discussion. Upon doing the worksheet, TW be looking for
correct sentence structure in the scrambled sentence. TW then be
looking for correct spelling, punctuation, capital letters, and finger
spaces in their writing of the sentence. For the drawing TW be
looking for a connection in their picture to what the sentence is
about and what was read in the story. Students will receive full
participation credit and credit for their worksheet if effort is
made, and the new knowledge along with their prior knowledge of
writing is reflected in their work. Students will be assessed in a
formative manner while they are in their guided and independent
practice.
Modifications/Differentiation: For ELLs in the classroom,
teacher will make sure that the story is understood by reading it
slowly and clearly, doing the buddy talk, and using visuals as
much as possible to help with the development and
comprehension of the plot of the story. If it is possible to pair
them with a buddy who can communicate information more
effectively, buddies will be sat at the same table group.