1. Name: Fiona B. Griswold Cooperating teacher-librarian: Debra Newell
Dates: October 7 & 8, 2010 School & City: Thomas Paine Elementary, Urbana, IL
Lesson Title: Theme: The Sun--Readings and Activities
Grades: Cross-Cat K/1 & 2/3; Kindergarten Length of lesson: ~ 30 min
Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to use the overall theme of “The Sun” to provide an enjoyable
read aloud to students that also provides some basic information and concepts about the sun: both
what it is and why it is important.
Learning Outcome: After this lesson, the students will have some understanding/knowledge of the sun
and its importance to the earth, provided through a variety of media with developmentally appropriate
content.
Illinois English Language Arts Learning Standards:
 2.A.1b Classify literary works as fiction or nonfiction.
 2.B.1a Respond to literary materials by connecting them to their own experience and
communicate those responses to others.
 4.A.1a Listen attentively by facing the speaker, making eye contact and paraphrasing what is
said.
 4.A.1d Use visually oriented and auditorily based media.
Standards for 21st Century Learner:
 1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.
 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media,
digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
 2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.
 4.1.3 Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres.
Materials Needed by Librarian:
 Sun books (fiction & non-fiction)
 Song lyrics/finger plays
 They Might Be Giants’ Sun song and video
 Computer (to show song/video)
 Sun craft/activity
 Seating chart
Materials Needed by Students:
 Good attention and listening skills
 Glue, crayons, pencils and construction paper (for Cross-cat classes)
1

2. Instructional procedures:
Focusing event:
1. For Kindergarten Classes: Begin, as usual with the finger play, “Sometimes my hands are by my
side…” , For Cross-Cat classes, begin by greeting each student.
2. Then move on to introduce the theme for today: today we will be reading/looking at books that
are all about the sun!
Input from you/student participation:
3. Ask students to share what they know about the sun (hot, bright, etc.)
4. Read short story/poem about sun.
5. Sing one of the sun songs together(for CC K/1 and K)
6. Look at one or two nonfiction books about the sun and talk about how far away it is and so on
(age appropriate/developmentally appropriate).
7. Move on to sun activity/craft (making a sun using tracings of students’ hands). Or, for CC 2/3
and K, play They Might Be Giants’ Sun song.
Closure:
8. Thank students for their participation and good listening, dismiss to check out.
Check for understanding:
I’ll be checking for understanding as we read by using some of the characteristics of reading to ask the
students to think about the story/books and what might happen as we read. I will also use questions to
assess whether students are understanding different concepts, particularly for the cross-cat classes.
What’s next?:
The next thematic unit that Mrs. Newell has planned for each of these classes.
2