Lesson Plan #: AELP-CHL0214
Grade Level: 1
Subject(s):
Duration: 30-45 minutes
Description: In this lesson, students listen to the story, Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet. Students will learn about opossums, share embarrassing moments that they've had, and discuss how each person is unique. Students will create "Special Spiders" to showcase their uniqueness.
Goals:
Materials:
Vocabulary:
Procedure:
Inform students that they will be listening to a story called
Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, which is about an opossum in a Halloween parade. Ask students, "Do you know what an opossum looks like?" Have students share their responses, and then show pictures of opossums. Read the story, and afterwards discuss Gilbert's embarrassing moment. [Brief summary: Gilbert the opossum wants to be a Martian Space Pilot for the costume parade at school. His sister also wants to wear the same costume. When Gilbert arrives at school, he discovers that he has his little sister's ballerina tutu instead of his space costume! Most of Gilbert's classmates are dressed as space pilots, so Gilbert decides to be different and wears the ballerina costume.]
Give students an opportunity to discuss embarrassing moments that they have experienced. Also discuss how every person is unique (and how Gilbert's sister decided that it was important for her to be herself). Have students create "Special Spiders" using construction paper. Each child will make a spider and add unique characteristics to it (Example: If a child has glasses, he/she will put glasses on the spider.).
Lesson Extensions:
There are many extension possibilities for the book,
Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet. Science could be incorporated into the lesson by having the children research the different animals that were characters in the story (rabbit, cat, owl). Physical activity could be incorporated into the lesson by having a Halloween or costume parade for students to participate in. Art could be incorporated into the lesson by having the children draw their favorite scene from the story.
Assessment: Observe students' participation in class discussions. Students should be able to describe what an opossum looks like. Each student's "Special Spider" should have unique characteristics.
Special Comments:
There are many ways to integrate technology into this lesson plan:
If the classroom contains one computer connected to the Internet, the teacher can find information and photos about the animals in the story. A computer overhead projector could be used to display web sites. The teacher and students could read and discuss the information that was found.
A classroom that contains a cluster of six computers connected to the Internet would be a great environment for technology integration. The teacher can have the students take turns using the computers to research opossums. Children can look at opossum pictures found on the Internet and write down three words describing them (ex. small, hairy, gray). With the aid of the teacher, this activity would take about 20-30 minutes.
If the class has access to a computer lab, the teacher can give each student a different country (ex. China) to look up on the Internet. The children
can research and print out a picture of a citizen of the country they were assigned (with the teacher's assistance). After the students
are done, they can discuss and share the pictures that they found. The class
can discuss how each culture is different and how
these qualities make each group special.