Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Lesson Plan

Name: Katherine Lynch

Grade: First
Topic/Concept: Friendship, Kindness, Teamwork
Materials/Resources: puzzle pieces (premade), Nerdy Birdy, markers/crayons (in class).

Teaching Behavior Focus:

Kindness, friendship, and teamwork is the big focus of this lesson. Teaching students that they are each
created unique with their own differences but that doesn’t mean they can’t be friends and be kind to
everyone is the focus of this lesson. Nerdy Birdy does a great job of introducing this to the class. The
puzzle pieces will represent each person being unique, but then we come together and make a complete
puzzle.

Learning Objectives (measurable):

The new understanding students will have as a result of this lesson is that everyone in this class
is on the same team and we need to treat each other with kindness and respect. This is
measurable by reading a book and completing a community building exercise with puzzle pieces
to represent us as one unit.

Standards:

RL.1.10 With prompting and support, read and understand literature of appropriate complexity
for grade 1 for sustained periods of time.
RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and
texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Assessment Plan (How will you know that your students met the objective?):

The assessment we have decided to use will be the puzzle pieces. This will show that you can
decorate your puzzle anyway you want and it is completely unique to you. When we end up
putting all the pieces together, it will show how we are each unique but also a unit and a team
and we all are essential to the classroom. Asking them follow up questions about the book and
puzzle pieces will provide us data/information to know that they understand the material and has
met the objective.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

New Vocabulary:

Key vocabulary that is necessary to understand the task/activity:

Kindness- the quality of being friendly, generous, kind

Friendship- the state of being friends
Teamwork- working together as one unit
Unique- one of a kind
Diversity- variety
Inclusion- being included within a structure

Note: A detailed lesson plan is specific enough for another teacher to read and teach
effectively. There should not be any question regarding what to do or how to do it.

Lesson Development (hook/engage/launch, step by step in real time, include questions you will
ask in real time, closure/revisiting learning objectives):

Step One:

Introduce the topic by asking:

What is kindness?
Do you think we demonstrate kindness in this classroom?
Do we all think the same things? Is that okay?

Step two:

Read Nerdy Birdy

Scaffold throughout the book to make sure they understand.
Ask them specific questions about key details.
What happened in the beginning? What was the problem?
Was the problem solved? How did the character solve the problem?

Step three:

Introduce the puzzle pieces. (The puzzle pieces were precut at home and numbered so that they were easy
to put together.)
Emphasize how Nerdy Birdy was unique and different but that he still became friends with other people.
We are each created unique, so you get to make your puzzle piece however you want.
Allow them 10ish minutes to color and decorate their puzzle piece.

Step Four:
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Begin to put the puzzle pieces together explaining how all our differences come together and we are one
class. Each of us are important to the classroom and without one puzzle piece we would not be complete.

Step Five:

Closure and Extend: We can take this outside of the classroom.

Ask:
Where can you be kind outside of the school day? Challenge them to do that this week and come back and
tell us how it felt when you were kind to someone.