Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template

Student Name: Lydia Day

Grade Level: K
School and Mentor Teacher Name: Venable Elementary and Karen Minor
Date of Lesson Enactment: 9/22/16
Will your university supervisor observe this lesson? Yes
Topic: Calendar
Required for 4881 - Rationale: (Why are you teaching these objectives? Why did you select the
instructional strategies that you did?)
In Kindergarten it is important to teach the students how to use a calendar. It is also important
because it is a good way to tie in other skills such as counting, number sense, pattern recognition,
and the four seasons. In the first part of the lesson we will be learning about the seasons because
it will be the first day of fall.
For this lesson I will be focusing on shape recognition and comparing shape characteristics in
order to prepare the students for a math activity where they are asked to find different shapes
through out the room and record what they find. From my experience so far I have found
calendar time to be an important lesson on when to sit still, when to move, and whole class
participation etiquette. For that reason I will pay close attention to how the students sit, whether
or not they raise their hands, and how they respond to the questions asked throughout the lesson.
I will also be focusing on my reminders and behavior management strategy.

Enduring Understandings: (What big idea(s) will students understand as a result of this
lesson?)
-You can find shapes almost anywhere in everyday life
- How we describe a shape is important
- Different seasons have different types of weather (overall)

Essential Questions: (What question(s) will students grapple with as they learn through this
lesson?)
-

What is a season?
How are different shapes similar and how are they the same?

Primary Content Objectives:

Students will know: (facts/information)
-

That fall is one of four seasons and a sign of fall is when the leaves turn color and fall
from the tree, the weather starts to get cold, and the days start to get shorter.
Most shapes have a certain number of sides and points/vertices
A circle does not have either sides or vertices

Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)

-

Answer questions about the days of the week

Point out the vertices and sides of a shape
Compare two different shapes

Related state or national standards: (Examples include State Standards of Learning, Common
Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards or National Curriculum Standards for
Social Studies)
Math
K.4 The student will
a) count forward to 100 and backwards from 10
c) count by fives and tens to 100
K.11 The student will
a) identify, describe, and trace plane geometric figures (circle, triangle, square, and
rectangle);
Assessment: (How (and when) will students be assessed? What evidence will you collect to
determine whether students have met the lesson objectives? Will the assessment(s) be a preassessment (diagnostic), formative (ongoing feedback) or summative?)
Formative assessments will occur throughout the lesson in the form of questions.
How the students do on the shape hunt they will do later in class will serve as a form of exit
ticket.

Materials and Resources: (List here all materials that you will need in order to successfully
teach this lesson. Include technology and website links, texts, graphic organizers, student
handouts, physical manipulatives, etc.)
-Smart board
- Pointer
- Timer for pacing
- Videos
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavWWM2iTEw
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmr_TZLpS0
Key Vocabulary and Definitions:
-

Greater than: more than the other number

Less than: fewer than the other number
Vertices: corner or pointy part of a shape
Sides: straight lines connected to the vertices/points
Compare and Contrast: to look at both what is the same and what is different of two
things

Lesson Procedures:
1. Introduction and goal orientation:
Good after noon class! Did you all have a good lunch? Glad to hear. Please put your lunch
boxes on the shelf and walk quietly to carpet. Make sure you choose a circle spot where you can
see the smart board.
Its time for calendar so lets put our thinking caps on. (Model putting on a thinking cap)
Lets turn our listening ears! (Model turning on listening ears)
And check that your bottoms are on the rug and your legs are crisscrossed. (Make the hand
signals to support the ESL students).
2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences: (Questions or activities that help
students make links)
First Slide (a calendar of the month of September)
Boys and girls, we have already come across todays date earlier in the day. Can anyone look
around the room and find where we came across that? It is not on the smart board or on the big
blue calendar.

Lydia Day 12/6/16 1:00 AM

Comment: All of these slides were created on
Smart Notebook and used on a smart board.

(If no response)

Ill give you a hint. We read it together as a class this morning.

Morning message!
Great remembering skills! Can anyone tell me what the date is from the morning message?
September 22

3. Tasks and activities: (What challenging tasks and activities will students engage in
as they construct knowledge, learn new skills or behaviors and develop
understandings?)
Fantastic! (Move the wrong number tile up to the Thursday slot and see if they catch it if not
ask them what is wrong and have them help me correct it).
Alright boys and girls, what do you notice that I added to the calendar?
A leaf
Yes! I put that there to remind us that today is the first day of fall. Raise your hand if you think
you know what fall is? (Call on a few to hear their answer)
Fall is one of the four seasons we have in the year. It is typically the time when the leaves turn
color and fall off the trees. I have a short video to tell us a little bit more about the four seasons.
(Watch storybot video)

Lydia Day 12/6/16 1:02 AM

Comment: This was a short catchy song to help
the students remember the names of the four seasons.

Can anyone tell me how many seasons there are?

four, and maybe try to name them
What did you notice about each season?
Different weather. Hot, cold, leaves fall
What was another word for fall that the video talked about?
Autumn
Alright boys and girls, I have another challenge for you. I want to see just how well your
tracking eyes can follow my pointer. Pay close very very close attention.

(Have the students count 1-10 and then 10-1 and see how well they stay with the pointer. Then
lastly point to the 15 and see if they can recognize it in semi-isolation)
Next slide
Chant: I said today, tomorrow, and yesterday! I said today, tomorrow and yesterday.
Boys and girls, my trickiness has just begun. Lets read what is written on the smart board and
then I want you to raise a quiet hand if you think you can see my trick.
(Chorally read the text that has tomorrow as Saturday instead of Friday)
Tomorrow is Friday
How did you figure that out?
Answers may vary: because of the days of the week song, etc.
Great powers of deduction! Thats a big word for using your thinking powers.
Next Slide
So boys and girls, I have already added the next counter to our days in school table. I did this
because I wanted to try something new with you. We have been talking this week about how
grouping numbers can help us count numbers more efficiently. Now I want to try an experiment.
We have counted by ones, and we have counted by tens, now lets see if we work together to
combine the two. (Have the students show ten on their hands, then another ten for 20, and then
have them show one finger on one hand twice).
Chorally counting with me: 10, 20, 21, 22
Nice counting! And after only 22 days in school too!
Next slide (a short counting video to get them up and moving and to get the wiggles out)
I know we havent done this video in a while so lets all stand up in our circle spot for our Peel
the Banana song
Next Slide (picture of square and a circle)
Can anyone raise a quiet hand an tell me what these two shapes are?
Circle and a square
They are. Now can anyone raise their hand and tell one thing that is different about these two
shapes?

Lydia Day 12/6/16 1:03 AM

Comment:

Straight lines, sides, pointy things, corners, etc.

So what we see is that the square has sides and corners, which we call vertices, and the circle is
curved all the way around and has no lines or vertices. Great powers of deduction! What about
if we compare these two shapes? That means to look at what is the same and what is different.
(Cover the circle and reveal a triangle)
4 sides vs. 3, four corners vs. 3
You got it! The triangle has only 3 sides and 3 vertices, or corners, while the square has 4.
(If easy, Extension: compare rectangle and square and talk about length of the sides)
Next slide
Since we have been talking about squares which have four sides, lets do a quick review on how
we make a 4. Now boys and girls, does anyone remember our rhyme that helps us remember
how to draw a four?
Down and across and down once more, thats the way we make a four
Nice work. Do you think you can show us on the smart board? Lets all practice it with
________. Raise your writing hand. (All chant and trace the rhyme and the number)
(If a mistake is made thank the kid for making an oops for us to catch and learn from.)
Next slide
Its the first day of fall, which means the leaves will start to change soon. One of the things my
family likes to do is to try and find the first leaf that changes and falls in our backyard. Can you
help me find the first leaf?
(6 trees pictures are on the slide with the numbers one through 6. Behind one of the trees is an
orange leaf. Students take turns guessing the numbers to see if the leaf is behind that tree. )
We found the leaf! Now I can tell my family that I found one even though I am not home with
them. I bet they will be impressed.

4. Closure: (How will you wrap up the lesson and reinforce key ideas? Closure may include
some form of assessment or exit slip)
Now boys and Girls, for the next part of math we are going to be working more with shapes and
finding them in our classroom. Did you know there are shapes all around us? Can anyone look
around the room and find me something that is a circle?

How do you know it is a circle?

Curved line all around, no sides or corners
How about a square?
How do you know it is a square?
Four corners and four sides
You all have such good memories! So for the rest of math lets keep our eyes open for even
more shapes! Lets check our thinking caps... lets check our listening ears... lets check that we
sitting on our bottoms in the middle of our circle spot with our legs crisscrossed. This is how you
will show me that you are ready to hear the directions for the next thing we will be doing in
math.
(After calendar the class will participate in a classroom shape hunt)

Accommodations for individual differences: (How will the lesson be differentiated to support
diverse learners? Describe additional supports that can be used for re-teaching if needed, and a
challenging extension for students for demonstrate mastery quickly or show evidence of a lot of
prior knowledge.)
For the ESL students there will be modeling of activities and picture support to help convey the
question/activity.
There will also be an extension question about shapes if some of the students need to be asked a
more challenging question.
If students struggle with identifying or describing the different shapes during the activity that
they complete after calendar I will need to review it on the next days calendar lesson. For reteaching I can have a page full of one shape and have the students discuss the similar
characteristics, I can then show them the two shapes again and ask them how it might be easier
or harder to draw the tone of the two shapes. Why might it easier to draw a square/circle than it
is to draw the other shape? I can then have them come up and take turns tracing the corners and
the sides or a portion of the curved line while I re-explain the vocabulary and their uses as
descriptive words.

Behavioral and organizational strategies: (What behaviors will you model or discuss with
students? What do you want to remember about organizing the lesson and materials? Use this

section for reminders to yourself about behavioral and organizational strategies. For example, do
you want to explicitly model how to work with partners in this lesson? Or demonstrate how to
use mathematical tools?)
I will give small reminders both verbally and non-verbally about how they should sit or raise
their hands.
I will try to keep the students engaged to help them stay focused and following directions.
I will try to focus on the moment so that I can be more flexible with my lesson.