LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A. ABCs Coconut Tree.

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
The Pre-assessment that was done for this lesson was PALs testing. Students were
assessed on how many letter (both lower and uppercase) that they could identify. One
student in the class could identify all the uppercase letters. Although most students could
identify almost half, they could still benefit from the practice. This fits into the
curriculum sequence because they are continually working on this standard. The layout of
the lesson is something they are used to; a read a loud and then into centers.
This activity is appropriate because it will have the students engaged from the start of the
lesson and will keep their attention.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand – Students will
understand that the marks on
paper (or other materials) form
letters.
Students will understand that
these letters have names.
Know – Students will know the
26 letters of the alphabet.
Students will know the
difference between upper and
lowercase letters.
Students will be able to
identify the letters that make
up their name
Do – Students will match
uppercase letters to lower case
letters.
Students will write their
ABCs (only uppercase
letters)
Students will help put letters
in ABC order.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
Students will be assessed on if they can identify the letter(s) they have been given during
the read aloud. Students will also be assessed as they are doing their matching if they can
match upper and lowercase letters. Students will also have to identify the letters of their
names for their hats. Students will also be assessed on the completion of their worksheet
and journal writing.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL

STANDARDS if required)

Reading:
K.7 The student will develop an understanding of basic phonetic principles.
a) Identify and name the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet
Writing:
K.11 The student will print in manuscript.
a) Print uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet independently.
b) Print his/her first and last names.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book (CT providing)
 Felt letters (I am providing)
 Coconut tree outfit (I am providing)
  Brown and green construction paper (School providing)
 Glue (School providing)
 Colorful construction paper (School providing)
 Matching cards (I am providing)
 Worksheets (I am providing)
 Students notebooks (CT has)
 Pencils (School providing)
 Crayons (School proving)
 Poster board (School providing)
 Stickers with letters (I will provide)
 Doc Camera (School provides)

G. PROCEDURE
 Before:
 I will prep outfit
 I will prep letter matching cards (two sets)
 I will cut headbands, leaves, and letters for hats.
 Before students come back from specials, I will have hat supplies at the
gray table
 I will have their notebooks at their table
 During:
 After picking students up form specials, I will instruct them to sit on the
rug (CT may pick them up from specials since I will be in coconut tree
outfit)
 Students will sit on the rug
 I will calm down any excitement from seeing me in the outfit. I will do
this by addressing the fact that I am dressed funny. I will tell students we
will talk about why I am dressed this way when everyone is silent. If
they are too chatty, I will say “Ta, ta, te, te, ta.” Which is our school wide
call and response.
 I will have students stand up. I will have them get in their special circle.
Then I will break the circle and assist them in making a half circle facing
the front.
 I will start introducing myself (the ABC’s Tree). “I am no longer Mrs.
Wydler. I am the ABCs coconut tree. But I have a big problem. All my
letters fell off of me!”
 During this time I will remind the students that we will ask questions at
the end or we are not calling out or they won’t be able to help with the
activity.
 I will then bring out my felt letters that I have already taken the back
paper off, so they are sticky.
 I will explain “I need your help to get all my letters back up the tree.
When they fell, they got all out of order. They have to be put back on the
tree in order. So, it is going to be your job, to put them back up. I am
going to put one or two letters on the rug in front of you and you can’t
touch them until I say so.”
 I will put one or two letters in front of each student keeping A for myself,
so I can demonstrate.
 After every student has their letter I will say “We all need to be ABCs
masters in order to do this so before we start, we are going to go around,
and I want you to tell me what letter(s) you have. If you aren’t sure, we
can ask another friend who is raising their hand.”
 I will start on one end of the half circle and ask the student to share what
letter(s) they have. If they do not know I will ask, “Can someone raise
their hand and help ____ became a letter master.”
 After we get through all the students, I will pull out the Chicka Chicka
Boom Boom book.
 I will say “We are going to read this book to help us get all the letter
back on the tree in order. This book is called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archembault. This book has two authors
instead of just one. So that means they worked together to write this
book. That’s something new we haven’t really seen before have we?”
 After they answer I will say “As I read, when you hear your letter, you
are going to nicely stand up and come put your letter on the tree.”
 “Remember we talked about how trees are living things too, so we are
not going to hit the tree because just like you wouldn’t like to be hit,
neither does the ABC tree.” I will demonstrate using A to start off the
reading.
 I will start reading standing in front the students
 When I read A I will say, “So I read my letter A, so I am going to stick
my letter gently on the tree.
 I will continue reading, stopping and giving each student time to stick the
letters on me.
 I will provide aid with students when needed and provide reminders that
we should be listening for our letter. I will also tell them it is ok to giggle
but they should do it silently in their hands (and demonstrate that)
 When the tree falls in the book I will fall over.
 After the story I will say, “Well, now I remember why they fell the first
time because they are just so heavy, and I can’t hold them all! But thank
you for helping me put them back. You guys are all ABCs masters now
right?”
 After they answer I will explain the centers they will do today.
 They will have tree matching letters. “Just like we matched our upper
and lowercase letters with our leaves, we are going to do the same thing
with the tops and bottoms of trees. You and a partner will work together
on the rug to match the letters. When you are all done with your matches
I would like to check them”
 One group will also be working on a worksheet (see below). “some of
you will have a worksheet. You will have some stickers with letters on
them. You have to find the stickers with the letters of your name and put
them on the tree. Then you will write your name and count how many
letters are in your name. You will write that number right here.” I will
demonstrate this under the doc camera and leave it there during work.
 “On the back you will trace your letters.” (Or they will be matching
stickers to spots.)
 One group will be making hats with me in the back. On one leaf, students
will put the letters that make their name (meeting the standard that they
 recognize the letter in their name) and then will be able to add more
letters on the hat.
o As students finish their hats, they will put them on the back-sink
area
 One group will be writing in their notebook.
 One group will be meeting in the back with the teacher. (possibly)
 Students will spend 10-15 minutes at each center.
 After all students have been to each center, they will be sent back to the
rug. Students on the rug doing matching will be told to put their pieces
back together and bring them to the back table.
 One or two students will share their hats (I will prep determine this
during centers.) One or two people can share what they wrote in their
notebook
 Students will be sent back to their tables. They will be asked to put all
their notebooks at one end of their table and worksheets at the other, so
they can be collected.
 Students will be transitioned into snack time. During snack time, I will
call students, so I can fit their hats to their heads and glue or staple them
together.
 Students will get to take their hats home at the end of the day.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
Although there are no students with evident learning disabilities at this time in my
classroom, I have planned engaging activities considering their different learning styles. I
have one student who is selective mute, however, they are out of the country and will not
be there for my lesson. Although, if they were there, I do not think they would have much
issue with this activity because most of it does not need to be spoken. When asking the
students what letter, they have, I could start with asking who has the letter that this
particular student has. They would then be able to raise their hand in response and show
their letter, showing me, they know what their letter is. I will have another activity
prepared for my early finishers. I do not anticipate any of my students to completely
finish with all the activities especially with the read aloud being longer. For my lower
students, they will be able to complete all of these activities, some just with a little more
scaffolding. The letter matching will be done in pairs so that they can work together
which will help some of the lower ones.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?
One worry I have is that I only have 16 students in my class so, even if all students are
there, about 9 students will have to have two letters. I think the best idea will be to give
my strongest students/ most well behaved an extra letter because they will be able to
listen and calmly follow instructions, but I also want it to be fair for all students. I may
leave some of the letters out of being put on me simply because the book moves very fast
and the kids move slower, so I do not want to wait too long for all 26 letters. I will add a
few letters to my hat so that I do not have to hand out all 26 letters and I will ask the
students if any letters are still on me and did not fall off. This way they can practice
recognizing letters.
Another thing that worries me, is some of my more active students hitting me or trying to
put the letter in an inappropriate spot. To avoid this, I will first demonstrate how to put
the letter on with the A. I will also talk about hitting and how the tree would feel. I will
try to guide the students on where to put the letters, so they are not putting them in good
places.
My biggest worry about this class is that I have some students that act out during the end
of the day because they are tired and done with the day. Typically, in class, especially
during a read aloud, if they are not behaving or being distracting, they are asked to go sit
at their seat instead of on the rug. This will not be my first resort. I want the kids on the
rug being involved in the read aloud activity. However, I will have to keep the kids calm
because once my class starts to get excited, some bad behaviors start to show. I am
hoping that because the read aloud is something different they will be very interested, so
they will be more engaged and not start acting out. There could also be a lot of calling out
and giggling. To avoid a lot of giggling I will teach them how to silently giggle into their
hands. I want them to enjoy themselves and laugh but I want them to do it in a way that
does not distract others and does not get the class too worked up.
Not having enough time could be another issue. This will likely be a longer read aloud
than usual, so this will cut into our center time. Having everything already cut will help
save time. If not, every student finishes their hat, we can have some time during their
snack and rest time to finish it.