Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

Lesson Type: READ ALOUD

Title, Author & Summary of the Text Used in this Lesson:

“Pete the Cat: Pete’s Big Lunch” by James Dean-
This book is about Pete deciding what to eat for lunch. He starts to make a sandwich and lists a lot of healthy and
unhealthy foods he will add to his sandwich. After he finishes making his sandwich, he realizes he added too much food
and cannot eat it all alone, so he invites over his friends to share with them.

Describe how and provide a rationale for the way you have grouped students for this lesson:
All students will be grouped together on the carpet in the front of the room. I will not separate the class into smaller
groups because that is not their usual format for a read aloud and I do not want to disrupt their normal routine as that
could really through off preschool students.

Standard(s) Addressed:
VA Health and Physical Development Foundation Block 6- Health Knowledge and Skills

Objectives:
a) Indicate awareness of hunger and fullness.
b) Identify foods and the food groups to which they belong, e.g., vegetables, fruits, dairy,
meats, and grains.
c) Distinguish food and beverages on a continuum from more healthy to less healthy.
d) Demonstrate an understanding that eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables with lots
of different colors helps the body grow and be healthy.

The students will…

1
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

Decipher between healthy and unhealthy snacks, decide whether they would be full if they ate that food or not, and
whether Pete has a well-rounded meal with lots of different fruits and vegetables

Tier Two Vocabulary Words and Student Friendly Definitions:

Healthy Snacks: foods that are good for your body
Apple: healthy snack
Fish: healthy snack
Crackers: healthy snack in moderation
Ice cream: unhealthy snack
Sharing: something that is kind to do for your friends

Materials needed/preparation of the learning environment:

One copy of “Pete the Cat: Pete’s Big Lunch”

Plans for differentiation:

I will sit one student who has trouble paying attention closer to me and ask him to point to pictures on the page to keep his
interest. I will also memorize some of the names of the foods mentioned in the book in Spanish to help involve the four
students who are ELL in the class.

2
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

Before Reading
Engage: Describe how I will start the read aloud by discussing the last book I read to the class, Time
you will: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” We will discuss how the caterpillar ate a lot 3 min.
● capture students’ of food and how some of it was healthy and unhealthy. I will then connect
interest and that book to Pete the Cat and preview the book by saying Pete the Cat will
introduce the text; also eat a lot of different foods like the caterpillar and we will decide
● activate students’ whether the foods are healthy or unhealthy.
background
knowledge; and
● set the purpose for
listening

Explore: Describe how I will also preview the book by having students point to where the title, Time
you will: author name, front of the book, and back of the book is. We will go over 2 min.
● preview the text what the title and author means. Then we will open the book point how we
will read the book from left to right.

During Reading
Explain: Describe how While reading the book I will ask the students to give me a thumbs up if the Time
you will: snack Pete is having is healthy, and a thumbs down if the snack Pete is 7 min.
● model/explain your having is unhealthy. Additionally, I will ask the students when Pete is
thinking (list page finished making the sandwich the first time if they would be full after
numbers and what eating it, and again after he fixes his sandwich the second time.
you will say/do)
● invite students to
model/explain their
thinking about the
words? (list page
numbers and what
you will say/do)

3
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

After Reading
Elaborate: Describe Time
how you will:
● engage students in
developing a more
sophisticated
understanding of the
purpose for listening

Evaluate: Describe I am going to combine all three of these “after the reading” sections together, as Time
how you will: I am afraid if I do too much after the book is finished, I will lose the attention of 4 min.
● encourage students the Pre-K students. Right after the book, I will give an opportunity for the
to assess their students to give any comments about whatever is on their mind (they usually
understanding and have a lot of stories to share that connect to something in the book). After that,
abilities I will ask them all to give me an example of a healthy food they could eat for
● evaluate (formally) lunch. After they tell me their healthy snack, I will allow them to line up by the
student progress door so we smoothly transition to recess.
toward achieving the
educational
objectives

Closure: Describe how Time

you will:
● remind students of
the lesson objective
● link the new
learning to future
learning

4
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

What could go wrong with this lesson and what will you do about it?
I am most afraid that I will lose the attention of the students, as Pre-K students do not have a very long attention span.
Additionally, my read aloud is scheduled for right before recess, and most days the students are very excited about recess
and become antsy. I will try to ask enough questions to keep the students involved and make sure I use different voices or
put emphasis on important words to call attention back to the book.

Reflection:

Overall, my practicum teacher said that I did a good job with my read aloud, however, I am a bit more critical with

myself. I managed to get through all of the procedure and objectives I mentioned. The students seemed to enjoy putting

their thumbs up and down to decide the healthiness of all the different snacks. Additionally, they did a good job

connecting their knowledge from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to the Pete the Cat book I read that day. They were very

excited that I was reading a Pete the Cat book, as most of them recognized the character and loved the series. However,

even with their excitement of the book and activities, I still struggled to keep their attention. I wonder if I potentially made

them too excited and they had a hard time containing their energy. They all really wanted to answer each question and

towards the end began shouting out answers while I was reading. I wanted to encourage participation, so I allowed them

to do this for a while as I wanted to follow the student-centered constructivist theory where students create their own

knowledge (Tompkins, 2017). However, it quickly became out of hand and the students started standing up and shouting.

While I was able to reign in the energy after this, I do not think the rest of the read aloud went as smoothly afterwards. I

5
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

finished the book, and then used the transition to quickly get the energetic students outside to recess. Most of the students

said their healthy snack was “chicken,” which was not only adorable but also proved they grasped the main objective of the

read aloud.

My practicum teacher told me that this is normally how read alouds go with this group of students and that their

excited involvement is much better than them not participating or listening. However, in comparison to my other read

aloud of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” this read aloud was more out of hand. Perhaps, I should have asked less

questions, so that there was less yelling and shouting to answer questions and more listening time. Also, while I intended

the thumbs up, thumbs down activity to be silent, perhaps, preschoolers are too young for an activity like this during a

read aloud, as they still wanted to speak their mind even though they were answering with their thumbs.

When choosing my book, my cooperating teacher asked that I found a book that would fit into the health unit which

I looked up in the Virginia Foundation Blocks for Early Learning, but other than that, she gave me a lot of freedom in

book choice. I wanted to find a book that would provide an outline to answer the objectives in block 6: deciphering

between healthy and unhealthy foods and knowing when you are full (Office of Humanities and Early Childhood, 2013).

While the poetry literary group presented, I was reminded of the Pete the Cat series and found the book “Pete the Cat:

Pete’s Big Lunch.” I liked that it had a lot of similarities to “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which I knew the class really

enjoyed. It also met the level of the class as they are emergent readers just learning to develop book-handling skills and

identify letters (Tompkins, 2017). As it fit the unit into the class was learning and the academic level along with the

6
 Reading Lesson Plan Format

JMU Student Name: Caroline Merrick Grade Level: Pre-K Date/Time you plan to teach the lesson: 10/2 at 1:30pm

interest of the class, I choose it to be my read aloud book. I think overall the book went over well as the kids seemed to like

the characters and the storyline in it.

References:

The Office of Humanities and Early Childhood. (2013). Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning. Retrieved from

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/early-childhood/curriculum/foundation-blocks.pdf.

Tompkins, Gail. (2017). Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. 7th Edition. California State University,

Fresno, Emerita. Pearson Education, Inc.