Mini Lesson - How to Break a Piñata

Developmental Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Amanda Guldin

Date: Group Size: 18 Allotted Time: 20-25 min Grade Level: 1st grade
Subject or Topic: Mini Lesson - informative writing - How to Break a Piñata
Common Core/PA Standard(s):

CC.1.4.PK.P
Recount a single event and tell about the events in the order in which it occurred.

W.1.2
Text types and purposes
write informative text to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately
through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Learning Targets/Objectives:
The first grade students will explain how to break a piñata by writing a step by step in order in which
it occurred by using a graphic organizer with teacher guidance.
Assessment Approaches: Evidence:
1. Graphic Organizer 1. Checking
2. Transfer Paper 2. Checking
3. Formative assessment 3. Kidwatching
Assessment Scale:
1. Seeing if they have each First, Next, Then, and Last, written correctly
2. Seeing if they copied the graphic organizer to the transfer paper correctly
3. observation
Subject Matter/Content:

Prerequisites:
writing sentences
abc’s
capital letters
lower case letters
punctuation mark
copying
transfering

Key Vocabulary:
Informative writing - Anything that is written with the aim to explain a topic

Content/Facts:

I. Introduction
 Mini Lesson - How to Break a Piñata

A. listen to the book audio

B. explain what we will be doing
II. Development
A. ask them about Piñatas
B. go through topic sentence, first, next, the, and finally
C. after each sequence, check to make sure writing is legible
III. Closure
A. transfer graphic organizer onto another sheet of paper to make it look like a
paragraph and get it checked
B. next day: transfer that onto a final draft and that will be their scores.

Anticipatory Set

● “Class we have been working on informative writing, and we are going to continue with it.”
● “Let us start with this book, The Piñata That The Farm Maiden Hung.”
● Listens to the read aloud book
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ5cTuvarpY
● “Today we are going to learn about how to break a piñata.”
● “I want you to repeat after me. Piñata. (repeat). Piñata. (Repeat). Piñata. (Repeat)
Development/Teaching Approaches

● “Give me roller coaster hands if you know what a piñata is.”

● “I am gonna call on three friends to tell me what a piñata is.”
● Calls on 3 or maybe 4 friends
● “A piñata is a decorated animal, shape, or anything you can think of, that is stuffed with toys
and candy. It is hung from a high place that you try to break while blind folded.”
● “This is similar to when we wrote about how to carve a pumpkin.”
● “I am passing out a paper that will look familiar to you to help with our informative writing.”
● “Let's start with how we are going to pick our topic or title. Since we are going to explain how
we break a piñata, I am going to start with: I can break a piñata. I make sure I call the cops
and that there is a punctuation mark at the end of my sentence.”
● “I want everyone to put their finger on the word First,. what do we do first when we explain
how to break a piñata?”
● Call on kids till someone can say that you buy a piñata first.
● “We have to buy a piñata first. I want you to pick up your pencils and write First,. When you
start your sentence, I want you to write small so we can fit the sentence in the box. We start
with First and add a comma after first. Then, we can start our sentence. First, I go buy a
piñata. I am going to make sure I called the cops and see if I have a capital letter, my sentence
is organized, and there is a punctuation mark at the end.”
● “Now in the second box that says Next, I want you to do the same thing as first but this time
write Next with a comma after it.”
● “What do you think happens after we buy a piñata?”
● Same thing with first wait till someone says something remotely to putting candy in the
piñata.
● “Yes, we have to put the candy inside of the piñata. To start, we make sure we write after our
next and we are making sure our writing is small enough to fit inside the box. Now let’s write
our sentence: Next, I put candy inside of the piñata. Let’s call the cops, what is at the
 Mini Lesson - How to Break a Piñata

beginning of the sentence? (Capital letter) What is at the end of the end of our sentence?
(punctuation mark or period)”
● “First, we go buy a piñata. Next, we put candy inside of the piñata. What do you think we will
do after that?”
● Students need to say something about hanging the pinata up.
● “Now we have to hang the piñata up. Let us go to the next box that says then. We want to
start with Then and add our comma after it. And we want to make sure our words are small
enough that our sentence fits into the box and we can read it: Then, I hang the piñata from a
high place.”
● “I’m going to call the cops. So what does my sentence need to start with? (capital letter) and
what does my sentence need to end with (Punctuation mark)”
● “So first, I go buy a piñata. Next, I put candy inside of the piñata. Then, I hang the pinata from
a high place. Now class, what do you suppose we do last? Everyone!”
● They should say hit the piñata.
● “Let us go to the box that says last,. I want you to write the word Last and add a comma after
it. We are going to write it small enough that we can still read it and that our sentence can fit
into the box.”
● “Now we can write our sentence: Last, I hit the piñata with a bat till the candy comes out.”
● “What do we have to have at the beginning of our sentence? (capital letter) and what needs
to go at the end? (Punctuation mark)”
● “Class, Class, (Yes, Yes) I want you to go to one of us teachers (Or just me) and get this
checked.”

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:

● Next day
● “Now that we finished our graphic organizer together, I want you to transfer what you wrote
onto this paper that I am going to hand back to you.”
● “When you are done transferring your graphic organizer to the new paper I want you to come
to one of us teachers (Or just me) to get it checked out.”
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tIxO40zoweDj2iP49PNYJCQMIByX76BJY330i3Pl0Ow/
edit?usp=sharing
● “Today and everyday I want you to remember that writers use informative writing to educate
readers on a topic. We did an informative writing on how to carve a pumpkin and today we
did one on how to break a piñata.”
● Next Day:
● “Now we are going to transfer this onto another sheet of paper and that will be your final
grade. When you are done with that you can bring it to a teacher along with both graphic
organizers.”
Accommodations/Differentiation:

● go at a slower pace
● sit with a group of students
 Mini Lesson - How to Break a Piñata

Materials/Resources:

Book - The Piñata That the Farm Maiden Hung

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ5cTuvarpY

Graphic Organizer

Transfer Paper
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tIxO40zoweDj2iP49PNYJCQMIByX76BJY330i3Pl0Ow/
edit?usp=sharing
Final Draft Paper

●
 Mini Lesson - How to Break a Piñata

Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels

When going over the students final draft there seemed to be only 4 categories to place the
students. Students who do excellent, students who need help with spelling words, students who
need to be reminded constantly to begin with capital letters and end in a punctuation mark, and
students who need extra time and a lot more teacher guidance. The students in the excellent
category don't need any help at all. They seem like they will continue to prosper. They knew
what they had to do and they did it. The students who only need little work are the students who
need help with spelling and not reversing their letters. There are only a few who still do this, but
when it gets corrected they correct it when they transfer it to the rough draft paper. When going
over the students who need reminders about capital letters and punctuation marks, after you
check and correct it, they then seem fine and correct it when they transfer it over. It’s the
students who need the extra time and teacher guidance that we need to help get them along. GA
has undiagnosed ADHD and the problem with him is to keep him focused and making sure he is
following along and not falling behind. Sometimes I noticed him just not paying attention when
he is at his seat, but when he is with a teacher, he can focus and he stays on task and is always
with the teacher as they teach. WI, we know has ADHD but the parents won’t get him
medication. So, he is similar to GA, but the thing with his writing is that it is unreadable and a
whole big jumbled mess. With WI, you need to be right next to him going word by word,
reminding him about capital and punctuation, and reminding him about using a finger to space
his words apart. It got so bad that the other teacher took a piece of paper and used a highlighter
to write the whole paragraph and WI had to trace it. JE is like GA but without the ADHD. He
just doesn’t like to apply himself. He is similar to WI that you have to sit with him and go step
by step right next to him.

Personal Reflection Questions

My best moment when teaching my mini lesson was how excited the kids
seemed to get when I told them we are going to write about piñatas. I feel like they liked
it because it was student based with some guidance. The students were giving me their
ideas of what you need to do first, next, then, and last when breaking a piñata. I also
think they loved coloring their piñata and creating their own when they had finished the
final draft. I can have more moments like this by doing more topics like this with things
they would be interested in. I could also incorporate events coming up or holidays in the
writing. My most challenging moment I would have to say was when I had to stop after
every sentence we created to check the student work. Did they spell the words right, is
the sentence the same as on the board, is there a capital letter and punctuation at the
end. It went into our math time, so it just took too much time to do. I just kept the class
going and having another teacher there to also check the students' work, it made
everything go a lot faster and smoother. My biggest obstacle to improve would have to
be not relying on the teacher too much. When I get my own classroom, I might not have
another teacher in there with me. So, I have to find my own way to manage the time
better and get through every student. I also need to manage the classroom better,
making sure no one is in their own land and doing what they need to be doing.