Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Teacher Candidate: Paige Arehart
Name of Lesson: Nuts For Winter
Subject: Reading

Small Group Session 1

Grade: First

Rationale for lesson:

This lesson is designed to gauge, expand, and introduce students to the text Nuts For Winter
while building on phonemic and context awareness.
Learning outcomes:
Students will gain knowledge of books general idea/theme as well as genre.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will be assessed on participation in group lesson and activity on ipad.
Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard:

RF.1.2c Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken singlesyllable words.

Materials Needed:
Ipad
Book, Nuts for Winter
Pencil
Paper
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
Good day class, today we are going to be learning about a new book, Nuts For Winter. This is a
fantasy book; does anyone know what a book being called fantasy meats?
Teaching procedures:
Teaching candidate will walk students through book Nuts for Winter introducing concepts and
information that will be found in the text. Teaching candidate will then use Ipad to do the
phoneme blending activity from mcgraw-hill website with students. Each student should be
prompted to answer at least one of the questions so as to be participating. Students will then be

prompted to write a series of 5 high frequency words: run, jump, move, two, help. To culminate
students will sort the items by color at the end of the given text as directed.
Closure:
Thank you for working with me today, have any of you ever read any other fantasy books?
What made them like this book?
Technology (if appropriate): Ipad
Reflection:
This first lesson with my small-group students could have worked better. The students
were very distracted because we worked at the table in the back of the classroom so there were
many other distractions. The students worked on a picture walk through of the text and so they
used the pictures to try and tell the story that they thought was happening. The students all had a
hard time writing two even though I specified that it should be the number version of the word.
They were most engaged during the Ipad activity on phoneme blending. Each student first tried
to read the word, then they would hear it said on the Ipad, then if they pronounced it incorrectly I
asked them what they thought they did wrong. Then they would identify the blend on the
correctly pronounced word. I asked them some personal questions at the end of the activity like
what their favorite things were and how they liked reading. All but one of them, Alex, said that
they did not like to read and did not do it at home. I also asked what their favorite part of the
lesson was and they all very excitedly stated the parts on the Ipad. I am going to try and
incorporate more phonics and word work with it in our next lessons.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Teacher Candidate: Paige Arehart
Name of Lesson: Nuts For Winter
Subject: Reading

Small Group Session 2

Grade: First

Rationale for lesson:

This lesson is designed to gauge, expand, and inform, and reinforce information found in the text
Nuts For Winter while building on phonemic and context awareness.
Learning outcomes:
Students will gain knowledge of books general idea/theme as well as genre.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will be assessed on participation in group lesson and activity on ipad.
Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard:

RF.1.2c Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken singlesyllable words.

RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Materials Needed:
Ipad
Book, Nuts for Winter
Pencil
Paper
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
Hi everyone, how are you today? Today we are going to read the book Nuts for Winter that we
did a picture walk through on Monday. Does anyone remember what story the pictures told in
this story?
Teaching procedures:
Teaching candidate will read book, Nuts for Winter, with students allowing them to each read a
page if students feel comfortable. Teaching candidate will then use Ipad re-telling cards to have

the students re-tell the story through the pictures. Students will then be prompted to participate in
the phonemic awareness word blending activity on the Ipad as well. Students will then be walked
through the Comprehension section on the Ipad activity and will read and each be prompted for
the correct response to the questions. If incorrect, teaching candidate will help to explain to
student how to get the correct answer and why.
Closure:
Thank you for working with me today, what did you think of the book we read today? Did you
like it?
Technology (if appropriate): Ipad
Reflection:
Todays lesson went smoother than the previous one. I moved the small group to the
library where we could be away from the rest of the class and it was a lot easier for the students
to focus and remain on task. Each of the students read 2 pages of the text today with them
rotating around the circle reading a page twice. They each have varying skill and comfort level
with reading. Alex and Jacob both are comfortable and fluent with the text while Shaylin and Ali
have more challenges and are a bit more apprehensive with the text. Both of them read in a more
disjointed and slightly choppy way. Shaylin in particular has some challenges with sight words in
addition to new words. After some assistance and encouragement both of the ladies were more
confident on the second rotation around the circle for reading. The students lack a lot of
comprehension and information retention from the text that they are reading, this was exhibited
to me by the use of the re-telling cards on the Ipad, the students had to be led a lot through this
exercise. As a result I am going to have them re-read the text again in the next lesson.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Teacher Candidate: Paige Arehart
Name of Lesson: Nuts For Winter
Subject: Reading

Small Group Session 3

Grade: First

Rationale for lesson:

This lesson is designed to gauge, expand, and inform, and reinforce information found in the text
Nuts For Winter while building on phonemic and context awareness.
Learning outcomes:
Students will gain knowledge of books general idea/theme as well as genre, and phonological
awareness.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will be assessed on participation in group lesson and activity on ipad.
Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard:

RF.1.2c Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken singlesyllable words.

RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Materials Needed:
Ipad
Book, Nuts for Winter
Pencil
Paper
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
Good morning, we are going to review what we have been learning about our book, Nuts for
Winter, can anyone tell me what happened in this story?
Teaching procedures:
Teaching candidate will have students each read the book on a single page rotation to review
what happened. Students will then be prompted to use the re-telling cards Ipad activity for

reading comprehension. Students will then be prompted to sort ar words in the phonemic
awareness sorting game. Students will then review irregular plurals with teacher candidate and
be prompted to write ones that they can think of on a sheet of paper. (men, man, child, children).
Closure:
Thank you for working with me today, Id like each of you to think of a word that has the (ar)
blend that we have been working on before we leave and tell me what it is and where you think
the blend is. Great
Technology (if appropriate): Ipad
Reflection:
The small-group activity today was a lot of review and reiteration of concepts and ideas with the
students. I identified that they are having trouble with comprehension and being able to then retell the information or even use pictures to tell what happened in the story. Coming back and
reading the story again today helped them a lot. We started the session with them telling me what
they remembered about the story that we read, what they remembered was very general and thin.
After they read today they had a much easier time with comprehension application in the retelling activity. The students also all seem more confident reading out loud today with the smallgroup. Ali and Alex caught on quickly to the ar activity on the Ipad while Jacob had a bit
tougher of a time with the activity, but quickly caught on. Shaylin was missing from our
activities today. The students all through of different words for the wrap-up that had a ar in it
and this was very evident that they were starting to catch on to the blending concept. The words
they gave were- car, are, and far. All of them came up with their own word and were able to tell
me where the blend was located within the word.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Teacher Candidate: Paige Arehart
Name of Lesson: Nuts For Winter
Subject: Reading

Small Group Session 4

Grade: First

Rationale for lesson:

This lesson is designed to gauge, expand, and inform, and reinforce information found in the text
Nuts For Winter while building on phonemic and context awareness.
Learning outcomes:
Students will gain knowledge of books general idea/theme as well as genre, and phonological
awareness.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will be assessed on participation in group lesson and activity on ipad.
Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard:

RI.1.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

Materials Needed:
Ipad
Book, Nuts for Winter
Pencil
Paper
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
Good morning, we are going to review what we have been learning about our book, Nuts for
Winter, and learning some important words. Lets get started!
Teaching procedures:
Teaching candidate will prompt students with the Words to Know in the Key Vocabulary
section. Teaching candidate will give first five students the word, then prompt to see if they
know the definition, if no, then a sentence will be given to them to see if they can figure it out, if
yes then the student will be prompted to try and come up with their own sentence. Students will
then be prompted to think about the story that we have read, Nuts for Winter, and choose a

character from the story, then describe what they do and say. Each student will have to verbally
say 2 things that tell them what the character is feeling. Lastly, students will be prompted to once
again come up with irregular plural words, mice, mouse, and see if they can spell them.
Technology (if appropriate): Ipad
Reflection:
Today there were only two students, Alex and Jacob. As we worked through the lesson I
needed to augment the approach some. For every word given I provided them with the definition
of the word and what it meant and then the student was prompted to use it in a sentence. Alex
chose the character of the youngest squirrel to be the character and he decided that he was happy.
At this point in the lesson he started to refuse being engaged in the lesson, getting up and down
and walking around. I attempted to redirect him to the lesson, however he remained unwilling to
participate but stayed closer to the group. Jacob chose the character of the mother squirrel and he
said love and happy for how the character was feeling describing that these were the feelings
because the mother squirrel loved her babies and was happy she had nuts. When prompted for
the irregular plural word, Alex again refused to participate in the lesson, Jacob responded with
foot and feet. He spelled both correctly and he was very excited that he got it correct. This lesson
went well; however having not all the students while Alex was not engaged was difficult.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Teacher Candidate: Paige Arehart
Name of Lesson: Nuts For Winter
Subject: Reading

Small Group Session 5

Grade: First

Rationale for lesson:

This lesson is designed to gauge, expand, and inform, and reinforce information found in the text
Nuts For Winter while building on phonemic and context awareness.
Learning outcomes:
Students will gain knowledge of books general idea/theme as well as genre, and phonological
awareness.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will be assessed on participation in group lesson and activity on ipad.
Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard:

RI.1.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

RF.1.4b Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive
readings.

Materials Needed:
Ipad
Book, Nuts for Winter
Pencil
Paper
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
Good morning, Im excited to review what we have learned in all of our previous lessons today
as well as get ready to start our new book next time!.
Teaching procedures:
Teaching candidate will prompt students with the Comprehension section of the online resource.
Each student will take turns answering the comprehension question and then be asked to quickly
explain why they feel what they chose was correct, or incorrect. Students will then be taken

back to the re-telling cards and asked to put the story in order as a review of the book. Students
will then be taken through the Words to Know section as a review and each student will be
asked to write 2 sentences with one of the words in them.
Technology (if appropriate): Ipad
Reflection:
The students continue to struggle with comprehension application. This exercise has them
reading and then listening to a sentence or two sentences and then being asked a question that
pertains to that small section. Each student was able to complete the exercise with some
prompting, but many of them needed to have the section read to them again or to read it again to
remember what happened enough to answer the question. After a quick discussion on the story
that we have been reading the students were able to collectively put the story re-telling cards in
order very quickly, I was pleased because this is the fastest theyve completed this exercise as
well as the only time they have done it completely correct on the first try. Each of the students
were directed to choose different words from each other for their sentences. The students
remained engaged and on task today with some redirecting towards Alex and Jacob numerous
times.