Michelle Terry

Title/Subject: Choices-Natural Resources/Social Studies Grade Level: 4th Arkansas Frameworks Addressed: G.3.4.4 Explain how people are influenced by, adapt to, and alter the environment (e.g., agriculture, housing, occupation, industry, transportation, communication, acid rain, global warming, ozone depletion) G.3.4.6 Research ways in which the school and community can improve the physical environment by practicing conservation Common Core Standards Addressed: CC.4.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. CC.4.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences CC.4.SL.1 Comprehension and Collaboration: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Michelle Terry

Learning Goals: KNOW: The students will know the different choices made in The Lorax and the consequences of those choices. UNDERSTAND: The students will understand that decisions that are made affect others and that one person can make a difference. BE ABLE TO DO: The students will be able to respond to the reading by writing and identifying a possible outcome for the problem presented at the end of The Lorax. What would you do with the last Truffula seed?

Materials: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss 4 pieces of paper (Absolutely!, Yes!, Maybe!, No!)

Procedures: *Review of relevancy of new learning to prior & future learning: This lesson is designed to show students that one person can impact the environment (for good or bad) and different ways they can change the environment around their community for the better. The students will be

Michelle Terry

able to use these ideas in the future to better the environment that we live in. *Schema Activation: Ask if anyone has made a decision today. Ask for volunteers to share. Share my own choice/decision. *Next Steps: 1. Write the following on the board: The choices I make influence others. 2. Ask the students to agree or disagree with this statement. Their options are Absolutely!, Yes!, Maybe!, No!. 3. Have them go to the corner that corresponds with what they think and ask them to discuss their ideas with others in the same corner. 4. Have one person from each group share why they chose the corner that they did. 5. Have the students follow you to an open area to form a large circle. 6. Make sure the students are all facing the same direction and are about 1 foot apart. 7. Count to 3 and have all of the students squat down (sitting on each others laps). 8. Pull one students out. The entire circle will fall.

Michelle Terry

9. Have the students go back to the classroom and discuss how one person made a difference in the circle. Then have them give other examples where one person can make a difference. 10. Read The Lorax and have them listen for choices the characters made and problems that occurred in the book. 11. Brainstorm problems that occurred in the book and write them on the board. Ask the students what they think caused these problems (Choices people made). Explain that sometimes our choices have consequences. 12. Discuss the last page of The Lorax with the students. Explain to the students that they will be writing a short response telling what they would do with the last seed. The students will use examples from the book to help explain why they made the decision that they did about the seed.

*Closure: After the writing extension come back together and discuss the different ideas that they wrote about. Brainstorm ideas or ways that one person could positively impact our environment. Write this out for students to see.

Michelle Terry

Evaluation: I will know the students understood the objectives if they can list at least 3 ways from The Lorax where the environment was altered and the people had to adapt to it or move away. I will know the students understood the objectives if they are able to write a short response with a probable solution for the truffula tree seed using examples from the book. I will know the students understood the objectives if they are able to list ways in which one person can positively impact the environment.