Lesson Plan #: AELP-WCP0206

If Trees Could Speak, What Would They Say?

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Dawn Carlson
Email: dmc11@acsu.buffalo.edu
School/University/Affiliation: University at Buffalo

Date: November 9, 2001

Grade Level: 3, 4, 5, 6

Subject(s):

Duration: Two 50-minute sessions

Description: The change of seasons, as seen in New York, is a phenomenon not all people experience. This lesson addresses how students experience the change in the fall season. Students will describe how the change of the seasons makes them feel, and they will share their past experiences with seasonal changes. Students will discuss the physical changes they observe in the trees and the weather. Students will be asked how they think a tree would feel during autumn. (This lesson was originally used with ESL students.)

Goals:

  1. Students will use English to participate in social interactions.
  2. Students will interact with others orally and with written text for personal expression and enjoyment.
Objective: Students will be able to write a well-developed paragraph in the third person about how a tree might feel during the change of seasons.

Materials:

Procedure:
(Prior Knowledge: Students will have taken a walk in a local park, collected different colored leaves, and already made observations about the changes occurring in nature, the weather, the temperature, and with the flowers and trees.)

In small groups, students will describe and share the leaves they collected during their walk in the park. Encourage students to share their first impressions of autumn and how the changing weather and leaf colors make them feel. Read Sky Tree and introduce the third person perspective. When the story is finished, refocus students' attention on the pages that refer to autumn. [ Summary of Book: Sky Tree is a science picture book that presents the changing stages of a tree through winter, spring, summer, and fall. Questions are posed that help students connect the pictures to feelings/moods.]

Inform students of the day's assignment. Each student will write a paragraph about autumn from the perspective of a tree. Review good paragraph structure: planning, a topic sentence, supporting sentences that relate to the topic sentence, and a concluding sentence. Review the third person point of view and how it differs from the first person point of view. Pair students so they have someone to ask for help if they need it. As students are planning and writing, circulate around the room providing help and offering suggestions as needed.

Students will take their leaf samples (or select a picture from the teacher's collection) to take to their desk to begin planning their paragraph. Different pictures of trees, the Sky Tree book, and newspaper articles will also be available to help students stay focused and on task. Students will plan their paragraphs and then begin writing their paragraphs. Students will conference with their partner when they need help. If the partner cannot help them, then they will conference with the teacher. Final drafts will be written up and shared with the class. Students can also draw a picture of the tree they are describing.

The students will share their final drafts with the class. (A class book will hold all the students' work and if possible, be shared with children in lower grades.) Conclude by reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. [ Summary of Book: The Giving Tree is the life story of a man and a tree. The man and tree engage in conversation from when they are young until they are old. It is a wonderful story to engage students in a discussion about feelings.]

Assessment: The final paragraph should be graded in accordance with teachers' established criteria for their classrooms and the specific objectives established for the lesson.

Special Comments: This lesson may be adapted to fit the needs of teachers. For older students, one paragraph could be changed to three paragraphs.