2. Description For our project, we will be presenting one day’s worth of lectures garnered towards a first grade class, with a winter theme. The subjects we will be covering are Math, Reading, Writing, Science, and Social Studies.
3. Math Today we will be reviewing how to add, subtract, and count. What will we be counting? Snowflakes! Each student will get two sheets with 50 snowflakes on them. They will use this sheet to count forwards from 50, and backwards from 50. The students will be asked to try both counting forwards and backwards on their own by writing the numbers in their snowflakes (one sheet for forwards, and one for backwards), and then we will do the brackets with them out loud. They will be able to keep these worksheets and look back on them Once they successfully grasp this, we will move onto physically adding and subtracting things from each other, that way they will fully understand what it means to add to or take away from something. Students will be put into groups of four, and each student in the group will receive 10 snowflakes—40 snowflakes total. We will then write a different problem on the board for each group, and ask them to solve it using their snowflakes. The goal of this math lesson is to allow the students to visualize addition and subtraction, that way when they do addition and subtraction problems on a test, they can think back and remember this lesson and how they saw that subtraction made their pile of snowflakes smaller, and how addition made them larger. This lesson will help them remember what term goes with what action.
4. Reading The students will be reading a story about a snowflake’s journey through the sky. The book is titled “The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story,” and it is written by Neil Waldman. This story tells us how a raindrop becomes a snowflake, and all of the other things that happen to it before it flutters down to the ground. After we read and discuss the story together, the students will begin their 30 minutes of Quiet Time reading. They will be reading one of the books they checked out from the library earlier in the week. The goal of Quiet Time reading is to help the students learn that a story has to make sense. If they are reading properly, the story will make sense—if they are mispronouncing the words in their head, the story won’t make very much sense. At the end of Quiet Time reading, each student will do an individual reading conference with us. We will discuss their story with them, ask them about any words they had trouble with, and discuss their goals to work on for the next reading conference.
5. Writing Now that our studentshave read how a snowflake actually becomes a snowflake, they will write their very own story about it. Eachsnowflake must have a name and personality, since all snowflakes are unique! Students will be asked to try their best to talk about the weather conditions their snowflake might experience on it’s journey down to earth, and what happens when it finally lands. Each story can be as unique and fun as the students want it to be! Every snowflake is different, and every story may be just as unique. This allows the students to be creative and have fun while still learning about the physical characteristics and journey of a snowflake.
6. Science Now that we have read our story and the students have written their very our own story, they should have a pretty good idea of how a snowflake is made and how their journey down to earth is completed. For our Science class today, we will be coloring snowflakes, raindrops, and clouds. Then we will be cutting them out, and placing them in the correct order that we learned in our story. For students coloring snowflakes, please remember that your snowflakes need to be completely different from the others—since they are all unique! Be creative! Since a snowflake and raindrop visit both normal and rainy clouds, students will be given two different types of clouds, and will be asked to color them according to the directions (normal cloud, rain cloud) on the back of their cloud. When students are all done coloring their snowflake, raindrop, or cloud, we are going to ask that they come to the bulletin-board. Theywill place their item(s) in the proper order explained in the story we read. If students have trouble remembering, they may look back to the story we read during our Reading lecture earlier in the day. Of course, we will provide any necessary assistance!
7. Social Studies The students should have all done a very good job learning about snowflakes today! They should know that snowfall occurs in specific regions, and today we are going to label those regions on the map of the United States. We will put students into groups of four, and each of them will receive two snowflakes. When their group is called, they will all go up to the board and put their snowflakes in the regions where they think snow might fall. At the end of the activity, the groups with the most snowflakes in the correct regions will win a small prize from the treasure chest. Afterwards, we will review why snow doesn’t fall in certain places. If a student has snowflakes in the wrong region, we will explain why snow can’t fall there and show them where they could have moved their snowflake instead.
