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PK-3 Lesson Plan Format

Mentor Teachers Initials _____

Name: Gabrielle Brunet and Ellyn Culotta Grade: Pre-Kindergarten
Date: October 2, 2017 Group Size: 5 students

Subject/Lesson Topic: Language Lesson Plan - There was an Ol' Cajun Story Book

Objectives: Commented [1]: makes sure that everything ties back

to this, be able to assess it, measure it
TS Gold Objective 12: Remembers and connects experiences
- The learner will retell the experiences in order, provide details, and evaluate the
experience and recall 3 or 4 items removed from view.

Standards/GLEs:
TS Gold Objective 12: Remembers and connects experiences
a. Recognizes and recalls: Tells about experiences in order, provides details, and evaluates
the experience; recalls 3 or 4 items removed from view

Contextual Factors:
Westdale Heights Academic Magnet is located on College Dr. in East Baton Rouge
Parish. On the outskirts of the urban Baton Rouge city, sits the Westdale Heights campus in the
middle of the suburbs. With a very safe and secure campus, our faculty and students are
encouraged to explore within the walls of the entire facility. Westdale Heights holds about 450
students ranging in grades Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade. Something unique to Westdale Heights
is the amount of parent involvement inside and outside of the classroom. The parents of these
students seem eager to get involved and very cooperative when it comes to classroom
involvement. Specifically, in the class that we will be teaching this lesson to there are no children
identified with an IEP or RTI that we know of. Out of the twenty student class there is one child
who is an English as a Second Language (ESL) student. He speaks fluent English in school and
needs little to zero instruction in Spanish. There are no children identified with a behavior plan
either. There are twelve girls and eight boys in this kindergarten class. The diversity of the
students is depicted in the following percentages: 5% Hispanic, 15% Asian, 20% African
American, 60% Caucasian. Despite the diversity of the students, they are constantly challenged
at this magnet school to broaden their vocabulary and investigate the reason why and how things
occur.
In this language lesson, Ms. Brunet and Ms. Culotta will present the book, There Was an
Ol' Cajun, by Deborah Kadair. During this small group activity, the students will sit around a Commented [2]: this is the little paragraph that will
change each time.
small table with five chairs. We will pull these five students into the hallway during their center
time so that they are not distracted by what their peers may be playing with. After reading this
story to the children they will each participate in an activity that will help them retell the story.
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Teacher Materials/Resources:
- The book of There Was an Ol Cajun
- 5 - sheets of blank paper
- Crayons for children to color with
- Poster of the Ol Cajun man drawn on it
- iPad with the slide show of the animals (serving as a visual aid)
- pen/pencil to write the name of the animal on their work
- 5 copies of the newsletter to send home to the parents

Student Materials/Resources:
- Not Applicable

Technology Integration:
- Use an iPad to show the students pictures of all the animals that the Ol Cajun swallows.

Family/Community Connection or Extension:

- Send home a newsletter explaining to the parents that their children learned about the Ol
Cajun during reading time in class.
- On the newsletter there will be a section with questions for the parents to ask the children
about There Was an Ol Cajun.
- We will provide an address to local library so that they students and parents can go find
the book of There Was an Ol Cajun and re-read it if they so choose. Or the families
could pick out other books as they relate to Louisiana and its native animals.
- The address to the Baton Rouge Zoo is also included on the newsletter so that parents and
children can go find some of the native Louisiana animals in person at the zoo.

Pre-Assessment:
- Ask the students to put a thumb up if they have heard the word Cajun.
- Ask the students to tap their head gently if they have seen an alligator.
- Raise your hand if you can think of another native Louisiana animal that you have seen.

Lesson Procedure and Activities:

Introduction:
- When the children are seated and focused, begin by saying, Good morning boys and
girls, or Bonjour mes amis. That means hello my friends in Cajun French. We live in
the great state of Louisiana where many Cajun French people live too! In our state we
are lucky to have many unique and special things like delicious food, lots of sunshine and
interesting animals. Today we are going to read a book about an old Cajun man who lives
in Louisiana. In this story, the Cajun man swallows some interesting Louisiana animals.
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While Im reading, you may hear a few words that are new to you. We will talk about
those words and what they mean after the story. Your job during the story is to listen
carefully and try to remember at least one Louisiana animal that the old Cajun man
swallowed. Touch your nose if you can do that. Great! I knew you could! Now, lets get
startedThere Was an Ol Cajun, by Deborah Kadair.

Activities: Commented [3]: Make this more stranger friendly

- Recite the introduction Commented [4]: and be more explicit when writing
- Teach the children the saying why he did dat? so that they can read along with you and things out

the story for more student involvement

- Read the story There Was an Ol Cajun
- Use pictures of the animals on the iPad throughout the story as visuals to serve as
reminders/clues of the events as they occur (alligator, hound, gnat, newt, raccoon, etc.)
- After reading the story, ask the students to recall names of animals that the old man
swallowed
- Touch on the fact that most of these animals are native to Louisiana
- Discuss how some of these names are nicknames
- Ask the children to raise their hand if they have a nickname Commented [5]: take this out
- To extend the story, ask the students to think of additional animals the old man could
have swallowed
- Distribute paper and crayons
- Encourage the students to draw Louisiana animals but accept any animal drawing
- Write the name of the animal as they give it to you
- Add to poster of Cajun man (teacher drawn), while retelling the story
- To culminate the lesson, review by telling the children, Today we read the story There
Was an Ol Cajun and learned many new words (swamp, cajun) and animals native to
Louisiana.

Closure:
- Today we learned new vocabulary words from the story There Was an Ol Cajun. First,
we read the story together. Then, we worked on our activity that focused on each of the
characters or animals from the book. Now, we are able to better understand and
remember the unique Louisiana animals that we learned about from the story book.

Differentiation:
- For those students who require additional instruction, the teacher will provide constant
visuals for the student to refer back to.
- For the ESL student: even though he speaks all English at school, we would
accommodate his learning by providing the animals titles in Spanish and English for him. Commented [6]: this was great because it is what we
could do to accommodate for him
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- For those students that are above average/finish early: their activity would include
drawing another animal native to Louisiana that they can think of. We can look up some
pictures on the iPad if they want to draw another animal.

Formative Assessment/Evaluation:
- By following the informal assessment chart below we will determine if the students have
met our TS GOLD objectives as they were previously stated in the beginning of the
lesson plan.
Childs Student can recall Student retells the Student names at Student follows
Name at least one new major events that least one character directions during
vocabulary word happen in the story by name from the the activity (color
from the story (The Ol Cajun story (Ol Cajun or and cut out
(gnat, newt, cajun, swallowed the one of the animals) animals) Commented [7]: this didn't tie back to our objective
coon, hound) animals in order)

Amber

Lisa

Charlie

Donald
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