1.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

(2nd Grade)
*This was a reading comprehension lesson that served as the base of a writing workshop
lesson for a language arts/science unit on weather. The students practiced their
visualization skills with this lesson, and transferred them into creating their own story
using the five senses to help other students visualize their stories
2. SOLs/Foundation Blocks

3. Objective(s)

VA Reading SOL 2.8

The student will read and
demonstrate comprehension of
fictional texts.
VA Writing SOL 2.12
The student will write stories
VA Reading SOL 2.13
The student will edit writing
for correct grammar,
capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling

The students will be able to

relate previous experiences to the main idea
describe the characters, setting, and important
events
identify the problem and solution
identify the main idea
write for a purpose
generate ideas
organize, expand, revise, writing

4. Materials
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Written by Judi Barrett, and Illustrated by Ron
Barrett
Poster, markers (Anchor Chart)
Visualizing Sheet
Pencils
Crayons
Whiteboards/Clipboards
Smartboard/Elmo
SB Beach page (attached)
5. Optimal Students/Seating Arrangement for the Lesson
The students will be at their individual desks at the beginning of the lesson, and will join the
teacher at the carpet for the reading of the story, discussion, and conclusion.
6. Lesson Sequence

Introduction (10 minutes) Introducing the concept of visualization

What you will do/say

What the student(s) do/say

Lets try something! Close your eyes, and I

want you to picture a beach. Its okay if youve
never been, but weve seen pictures.
*As students answer the following questions,
record their various answers on a piece of
paper that you will later show on the ELMO.*
Breathe in, raise your hand and tell me what
you smell. Remember, keep your eyes closed.
Wave your hand around slowly or move it
over your desk, and raise your hand and tell me
what youre feeling right now at the beach.
Stick your tongue out or pretend youre
chewing, what can you taste?
Tug on your ears, what can you hear right
now at the beach? Raise your hand.
Last one, squeeze your eyes shut and think
really hard, and raise your hand. Tell me what
you see.
*Put list of responses on the ELMO/SB*
Open your eyes! These are some of the
different things that you said you could feel,
hear, taste, see, and smell.
Raise your hand. Do you think everyones
beaches looked the same in their mind?
Did someone say something that you didnt
have in your beach?
Why do you think we see different beaches in
our minds?
*Pull up SB page of different beaches
(Example is attached). Ask the students if their
beaches looked similar or different than the
examples.*
What we just did was called visualization.
Say it with me, visualization. Your turn,
(students repeat).
We can do this with reading too! Lots of you
are reading chapter books, and there arent
very many pictures! Some of you have books
with pictures too, but sometimes visualizing
whats happening in our minds helps us
understand the story better!

Students will close their eyes and

visualize a beach in their mind.

Students will inhale and raise hands to

answer question (still with eyes closed).
Students will slowly move hand around
and raise their hand to answer the
questions (still with eyes closed).
Students will pretend to chew or stick
tongue out and raise their hand to answer
the questions (still with eyes closed).
Students will tug on ears and raise their
hand to answer the questions (still with
eyes closed).
Students will raise their hand to answer
the questions (still with eyes closed).

The students will raise their hands and

respond to the questions.
Answers sought:
-Some people have been to different
beaches or have seen different pictures
-He/She had this in their beach but I did
not
-Beaches are different
Students will raise hands for each beach
picture that looked like theirs, or say if the
one they envisioned is not represented on
the page.
Students chorally repeat.

There are no wrong answers when you

visualize. What someone tastes, might not taste
as yummy or as yucky like it does for you.
Some people like apples, some people dont!

Procedures (10-15 minutes) Putting into practice (students will sit on the carpet in front
of the chart/rocking chair)
What you will do/say

What the student(s) do/say

Right here is an anchor chart for what? (Point

to title)
Whenever you read, I want you to look at this
chart or think of this chart. What we are using is
called our five senses. (Point to each picture and
name it, then have students chorally repeat each
one). Everyone hold out a camera next to your
face, and take a picture of it. Rub your brain, and
make sure its put away in there!
When you are reading, I want you to think to
yourself(and give examples)
I can see (the sun rise over the hill, blinding
my eyes)
I can smell (the spaghetti all the way across
the house)
I can feel (the roughness of the tree trunk)
I can hear (the birds chirping in the tree)
I can taste(the sweet lemonade that the old
lady made)
I am going to read one page to you, and I want
you to tell me what you can see, smell, feel, hear,
and taste. (Read page that starts with The menu
varied)
Read the book with emotion and add emphasis to
words, for example Everyone ate themselves sick
and the day ended with a stomachache keel
over, act out. This will allow the students to
relate to the words and actions. Pause every
couple of pages and ask students if they can
match any of the text or pictures to the five
senses. Give examples, I can taste the pancakes,
MMM!

Students chorally respond, visualization.

Students will pretend to take a mental image
of the chart.
Students will chorally repeat each of the
sense on the chart.
Students will listen quietly.

Students will listen quietly during the

reading, and respond appropriately to the
given questions.
Students will actively listen to the readaloud, and relate the story to the five senses.

Closure (5-7 minutes) Bringing the lesson together

What you will do/say

What the student(s) do/say

What an interesting town! You all did a

great job relating the story to the five senses.
Im going to flip back through the book
showing you the pictures, and I want you to
raise your hand and tell me something I write
under the senses!

Students will share with their neighbor

something they visualized from the story.
Students will appropriately give examples of
each of the senses, while raising their hands.

Flip through the pages.

On a separate sheet under the anchor chart
visuals, make bulleted lists or pictures of
what the students give as examples for each
of the senses. Go through each of the senses,
one at a time. (Have the students think-pairshare before they give examples to you.)
From now on, when we read, what are we
going to do? (Point to title)

Chorally answer, visualize.

7. Modifications for children at different learning levels

(ELL) When using adjectives or other words, involve movements and clear articulations to
portray meaning, or point to visuals. Create a picture cue card specific for ELL students (could
add word in native language as guide), or the class as a whole, to use during reading.

Smartboard Screen Shot of page images to use with beach visualization example.

Visual Cue for ELL students

8. Assessment
Checklist for individual students
Task
Actively participated for the
whole activity
Met classroom expectations
(raised hand, stay seated,
followed directions, little to
no re-direction needed, used
nice hands)
Completed the given
assignment (filled out foursquare brainstorm sheet)
Edited own paper (green for
capitalization, red for
punctuation, circled tricky
words) before bringing to
teacher
Initiated task, with little to
no-direction
Positive attitude and effort
during activity

Getting there!

YES!

Part Three: Reflection

In regards to teaching reading comprehension, I learned the best thing you can do for
your students is to model; to show students how to visualize (the strategy I selected), or use any
other skills. As teachers, it is essential to show them how repeat these steps and to help them

make this strategy habitual. Generalizing skills into other areas of content is also something I
learned that helps students. We practiced visualizing for reading comprehension, and other
students commented how they can visualize when they do math facts or when they take tests they
can visualize the science experiment we conducted, and that all of these visualizations help them
remember what to do.
I modified my instruction for my ELL students and for my lower-level readers. I used
pictures and labels for each of the sentences, as well a small organizer for their personal use. We
acted out the senses in a dramatic fashion to relate the act of touching, smelling, tasting, etc. to
the label.
The students really enjoyed the beach visualization activity and we have continued to
visualize other scenes for quick 2-minute warm ups for both reading and writing tasks. During
and after the book reading, the students showed a strong level of comprehension skills through
their oral responses and eager/active participation. After the book and discussion, I had the
students brainstorm some of the types of precipitations from the story, as well as ones they would
enjoy, and we came up with a writing topic for their next story. The students began to write about
similar towns or cities with unusual weather habits like the book, and showed a great interest in
comparing and contrasting the two.
If I had to change this lesson, I think I would do it in their small reading groups instead of
a whole group. Behavior management, specifically re-direction, never rests in this classroom and
whole group activities are tough to get through in the given time. In a smaller group there would
be fewer distractions. Another change I would make would most likely be the book itself. The
children have either seen the movie or read the book several times in previous classrooms or
experiences, and I felt this took away from the magical appeal of the strange plot. I would also
like to add an exit slip or a quick-draw of something they visualized from the story, or even from
the short beach activity.
This strategy and activity supports learning and helps students compile their thoughts.

Often times readers just read, without connecting to the story, which gives the text little to no
meaning. When a student visualizes a tornado of pickles as they read, they are immersing
themselves in the story and subconsciously building their comprehension of the text. A student
can physically witness an event, and recall the information because they saw it, they were there.
This is the same idea behind visualization; they read it, they saw it, they were there.