Heather McCracken

Ed 3503
Oct. 16, 2019

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach by Melanie Watt – Teaching Plan

General Learning Outcome

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond
personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts. (English Language Arts Outcome 2).

Specific Learning Outcomes (Grade 3)

Students will connect portrayals of characters or situations in oral, print and other media texts
to personal and classroom experiences
Students will summarize the main idea of individual oral, print and other media texts
Students will make inferences about a character’s actions or feelings

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to make connections between the character in
the book and their own life. Students will use ideas from the book to design their own
classroom. Students will make assumptions about how the character in the book feels. Students
will be able to tell me the main idea from the book, in their own words.

Purpose
I chose this book because it provides an easy and fun way to talk about comfort zones, safety,
and interacting with others. Students are able to connect to the character in the book,
summarize the main idea of the book, and make inferences about the character’s feelings,
meeting the identified learning outcomes in a meaningful and important way. Ideas from the
students that are easy to implement could be incorporated into the classroom for the year. This
allows students to have input into their classroom design and help build the classroom
community. Ideally, this activity would be done at the beginning of the year, before the
classroom community is already established.

Pre-reading
Ask students what makes them feel safe at school and why. What makes them feel safe at
home? Why? Who makes them feel safe? Why is it important to feel safe?
Show the class the cover of the book. Do you think scaredy squirrel feels safe at the beach?
Why or why not? Why would he be called scaredy squirrel? What do you think happens at the
beach?

During reading
There are a few crowds scaredy squirrel wouldn’t want to be caught in the middle of – ask the
students what crowds they wouldn’t want to be caught in the middle of and why.
Scaredy squirrel’s guide to building a safe beach – is there anything he is missing for his beach?
Scaredy squirrel gets to the beach, and at 11:42 am a crowd appears – how do you think
scaredy squirrel feels and why? What would you do if you were scaredy squirrel and why?
Would you stay and try to get a shell? Or would you leave right away?
 Heather McCracken
Ed 3503
Oct. 16, 2019

After reading
Say to class: Scaredy squirrel develops a detailed guide to build a safe beach. As we discussed
before we read the book, it’s important that we all feel safe. So we are going to make our own
guides, but instead of building a safe beach, we are going to build a safe classroom. What do
you think I mean when I say a safe classroom? (write the ideas of a safe classroom on the
whiteboard). A safe classroom is a classroom where everyone feels comfortable to learn. There
are no bullies and no name-calling. I want to know what else you think should be part of a safe
classroom.

Just like scaredy squirrel’s guide, you are going to create a guide to building a safe classroom.
Your guide should have three parts. First, you need a list of supplies. Your classroom already
has the standard things that make it a classroom – it has desks, chairs, pencils, a whiteboard,
students, and a teacher. I want you to think outside of the box – if you could add anything to
your classroom to make it comfortable for everyone to learn, what would you add? Maybe it’s
bean bag chairs, or a quiet zone for when things get too overwhelming, or smelly markers. You
should have at least six supplies for your classroom.

The second part is numbered instructions of how to build a safe classroom. Tell me how you
will put the supplies from the first part to good use. Again, you need at least six steps for
building your classroom, and your steps should be in full sentences.

The third part to your guide is a paragraph explaining why you chose what you chose for your
classroom. Who knows – I might decide to incorporate some of your suggestions into this
classroom, but I need to be convinced. Chose two or three of your supplies and explain in your
paragraph why they are necessary for the classroom. Remember, a good paragraph has an
introductory sentence, four or five body sentences, and a conclusion sentence.

Differentiation: Students who are done quickly can also draw what their classroom looks like.
Students who struggle with writing can begin by writing their paragraphs in point form and then
transfer the ideas into a paragraph if they have time.