JMU Elementary Education Program: Lesson Plan Outline

Practicum student: Julia Smith Date and time of lesson: October 12, 2016
Date plan submitted to teacher: October 5, 2016

A. Title/Type of Lesson

Wonderfall Read Aloud/ Reading Extension

B. Context of Lesson

The practicum student asked students questions about what they already know about Fall, what they do
during the fall season, and if they excited for upcoming field trip to pumpkin patch. The practicum student
asked if they see the leaves on trees starting to change colors. Students are excited to learn about fall and to
go to the pumpkin patch. This read aloud and extension activity is an appropriate activity for these students
at this time because students are learning to improve literacy skills, are learning about the theme of
families, and it is currently Fall. The book, Wonderfall, incorporates family fall activities and observable
changes in the natural environment during the fall season. This lesson fits in with what I know about child
development because it is developmentally appropriate for four year olds. The read aloud improves
literacy, listening skills, and reconnaissance. The content is digestible for the cognitive development stage
of the four year old child. The extension activity of making a fall wreath with simple materials and loose
guidelines aids fine motor skill development without overwhelming the child or becoming too tediously
challenging. The activity reinforces color names when using colorful construction paper for the wreath.

C. Learning Objectives

Understand – Students will be able to understand that during fall weather is colder, leaves change color
from green to shades of yellow, red, orange, and brown and fall off of trees by winter.

Know – Students will know what names of colors: red, yellow, orange, green, brown. Students will know
where the title of the book is and where the authors name is as well as what the author’s job is.

Do – Students will make predictions about what will happen in the story. Students will be able to use their
hands or scissors to make leaves for their wreathes and successfully paste the leaves to the wreathes.
Students will write their name on their wreath.

D. Assessing Learning

Students will successfully say the names of the colored leaves depicted in the book. Students will predict
that the leaves will change colors. Students will point to the title and author’s name on the cover of the
book. They will be able to verbally describe what weather is like in the fall. Students will complete their
individual wreathes by cutting or tearing and pasting with the supplies provided to them and write their
name on their wreath.

E. Related Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning

1. Literacy: print and book awareness, oral language, early word recognition, writing
2. Science: earth patterns, cycles, and change
3. Physical Development: skilled movement/manipulative skills
4. Visual Arts: aesthetics

F. Materials Needed
  The picture book Wonderfall  Red, orange, yellow, green, and brown
 1 Paper plate border for each student construction paper packets
 Glue sticks  Child size scissors
 Crayons

* The practicum student will provide supplies except for the child size scissors and crayons, which are
available in the cooperating teacher’s classroom.

G. Procedure
Read Aloud: (* for ESLs repeat questions and colors in Spanish if it appears they need scaffolding. Say the
names of the colors in English first then Spanish. Accept answers given in Spanish if students are not
confident in English language abilities.) First, I will ask whichever students have chosen to play in the
reading center if they will read a book about fall, called Wonderfall, with them followed by a fun craft. I
will sit in a place where each student can easily see the book and hear the story. I will show all the students
in the reading center the cover of the book and ask them to point to the title of the book then the author’s
name. Then I will ask the students to tell me what the author’s job is. I will then read the book Wonderfall,
stopping to ask during each phase of fall depicted what color the leaves in the tree are and why the
student’s think the leaves are changing colors (stop and ask on pages 1, 2,5,7, 11, 16 to see changes in
color). Also, I will engage students by asking which of the fall activities depicted in the book they like to
participate in. When finished with story, I will ask students if the can remember what colors the leaves are
in fall and point to one green leaf, one yellow leaf, one orange leaf, one red leaf, and one brown leaf
depicted on page 3. Repeat colors with them one more time.

Extension Activity: (* for ESLs repeat each instruction provided in Spanish) First I will describe the
activity to students before taking out the pre-staged supplies in bag. I will describe what a wreath is and
that wreathes are commonly seen during fall and winter because people use colorful leaves that have fallen
from trees to make them. Leaves change color in the fall when it gets cold and fall from the tree by the time
it is winter. I will instruct students to take one paper plate and tear up or cut the red, orange, yellow, green,
and brown construction paper that is in small packets provided to them into shapes like leaves. Then I will
instruct students to paste the leaves they have created onto their paper plate, creating a wreath. When
finished with wreathes, students will be instructed to write their name on their wreath by copying the letters
on their play center name tags. Ask each student to show practicum student their wreath and say what color
leaves they made. Students will be responsible for cleaning up paper scraps and placing them in recycling
bin putting glue stick caps back on, and returning child size scissors to the scissor bucket in the classroom. I
will be responsible for collecting extra or left over materials and disposing of them.

H. Differentiation

The practicum student has planned to meet the needs of all students by catering to the large demographic of
ESL students in their class by repeating important questions, answers, and instructions in Spanish. There
are no students with special physical or mental needs that would limit their participation in the lesson. The
read aloud with the picture book is meets needs of visual, auditory, and reading/writing learners while the
extension activity meets the needs of kinesthetic and reading/writing leaners. The practicum student will
encourage those students who finish the extension activity early to practice writing the names of the colors
on the color corresponding leaves of their wreath by copying the labels on the sheets of construction paper.
For those struggling with the objectives I will scaffold by providing more explicit instruction/explanation
of fall season in Spanish, modeling and talking through the verbal objectives, and assisting with writing
names.

I. What could go wrong with this lesson? What will you do about it?

Students could get distracted during the read aloud or be disinterested in learning about fall. The practicum
student will make the read aloud as animated and exciting as possible to hold students’ attention and ask
questions throughout to get them engaged. The practicum student will use the promise of a fun art craft as
bargaining chip to refocus students who get squirmy or distracted.
 Lesson Reflection: Wonderfall

My teaching only differed from my lesson plan in the reading extension activity and not the read

aloud. I demonstrated how to tear or cut one leaf from construction paper and glue it to the paper plate rim.

The students were confused and asked me to show them what I meant for them to do after my initial

instruction. It seemed as though my verbal instruction was confusing and so the follow up demonstration

quieted all questions. Each of the students loved the activity once they began tearing and cutting into fall

colored construction paper. I made this change because not all students in my group were auditory learners

and needed to learn visually as well.

The assessment I created was mostly made to support the efforts of the teacher in helping student

learn colors. The students loved being able to relate colors to visible changes in the local environment.

They enjoyed telling me about their observations that matched the depictions in the book we read together

about fall. Students did learn that when the season changes to fall and weather becomes colder, leaves start

to die and change from green to colors of yellow, orange, red, and brown. I completed a pre-assessment the

to see if students could match color to color name. One student, Jenny, knew each of the colors, but

confused red with green. One student, Camille, did not yet know any of the color names by heart. One

student, Matthew, did not yet know what the name for the color yellow was.

The assessment portion included pointing to the title and author on the cover of the book which

students practice during every read aloud. Then students were asked to repeat each color that leaves are

during the fall season that they had observed and identified in the book during the read aloud. Then I asked

each student to explain to me why leaves change color and fall from trees in the fall. Each student was able

to recall the colors and repeat them to me. Jenny, who had previously struggled to differentiate between

green and red did so in my assessment as well. Camille who had previously not been able to name any of

the colors was able to recall each of them in the assessment with no issue or scaffolding. Matthew was able

to excitedly say and name the color yellow in the assessment along with each other color. He also had no

issue explaining why leaves change color and fall from trees. Jenny was able to describe the changes in

weather and explain why leaves fall only needing to clarify that leaves didn’t get hurt when they fell.

Camille required a little more scaffolding to produce critical thinking about the changes we had observed.
Her initial answer was short and lacking in description, but with little support she was able to piece together

the elements that cause leaves to fall.

The students were able to demonstrate good listening, critical thinking, and knowledge about a

scientific process in this lesson. Wonderfall was an appropriate book choice for this time of year due to the

fall season and students were able to make text-to-self connections through personal observations. Read

alouds improve literacy in emergent and pre-emergent readers, and provide them with text awareness. I

would not change the book that I chose for a read aloud or the lesson about fall that I connected to this read

aloud. In the future, I hope to take my students outside and ask them to collect five leaves, one of each fall

color. This practice would still be developmentally appropriate, but would allow them to make stronger

text-to-self connections. With this particular class I was unable to incorporate the outdoor aspect of

learning about fall. If I were the classroom teacher I would consider teaching a lesson that incorporated

leaves, such as, using leaves as a unit of measurement with which to measure the height of each student. I

would also include leaves and child size gardening and raking equipment in the dramatic play area.

There were some weaknesses and strengths of this lesson, though the strengths greatly outweighed

the weaknesses. The weaknesses of this lesson included: young students struggle to sit through long read

alouds or activities, students were not able to practice all colors, I was not able to incorporate real leaves

collected from outdoors to better explain the text from the book. The strengths of this lesson included:

applying multiple building block of learning, allowing all students to participate, relating lesson assessment

to PALS assessment material in a fun and interactive way, allowing students to interact with materials and

create something meaningful. Overall, the lesson went very well and engaged each student that

participated.

I learned from this lesson that preschool students have a very difficult time sitting still through a

read aloud. It is ok to encourage students to stand up or make movements or sounds that we read in

children’s literature to keep them engaged and active movement may aid the learning process. As a result

of planning and teaching this lesson, I have also learned that sometimes as an early childhood educator I

will have to be an authority figure. Although I prefer to be a leader who is loved, I must be both loved and a

little feared as a teacher. Wearing a symbol that denotes authority during a read aloud, such as a crown,

may remind young students that when I am wearing this item it is my turn to speak. With every class or
small group of students that I teach, I will find different learning styles and may have to adjust my lesson or

instruction accordingly to meet each student’s needs. Sometimes a quick demonstration or a limited visual

aid will greatly help students without stifling creativity.