CHANGES IN THE SEASON!

Learning Targets

“I Can…”

• Use my body and props to role play each season
• Explain the changes in the seasons
• Connect the changes in season to changes in a story’s setting

Essential Questions

• What changes in nature occur during each season?
• What sort of activities do we associate with each season?
• How do settings change throughout the course of the four seasons cycle?
• How can we use key details to describe how the setting changes in a story?

Technology Integration

• Audio Equipment to play seasonal music
• Promethean Board
• Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)
• Youtube video clip of music found here

Formative Assessment

• Anecdotal Notes during Class Discussion
• Small-Group Dramatizations
• Season’s Visual Arts Project

Summative Assessment

• 3-Part Retell Document (see Downloads) Season Roleplay Rubric (see Downloads)

Materials

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter); Music player; The Tiny Seed by Eric Carl; 4 baskets of seasonal props (See Downloads for a list of Suggested Seasonal Props.)

Activating Strategy (5-10 min)

Main Activity

Part 1: Read-Aloud Focused on Setting:

• Keep the class list of words for each season nearby for this next part.
• Read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carl.
• As you read, add season words to your existing class list.
• Ask students to notice closely how the setting changes in each season.
• Ask students to notice closely how the character changes as the seasons change.

Part 2: Devising Role Plays with Props: *Before this lesson, organize 4 baskets of “seasonal props.” (See Downloads for a list of Suggested Seasonal Props.)

• Divide the class into 4 small groups.
• Assign a season for each group.
• Give each group a basket of props that correspond with their season.
• Direct students to use their props and bodies to create a 3-part role play for their assigned season.

Ex: The winter play may consist of students first making snow angels, then throwing snowballs, and finally sitting by the fireplace drinking cocoa. Students would act out their 3-part Winter Story.

• Scaffold your directions to first direct students to work only on determining as a group their first season activity they will roleplay, then focus on determining their second part and finally their third part.
• Refer to the 3-Part Retell Document (see Downloads) for an assessment of this performance-based task.
• Direct students to do all of their acting using only props, body movements, and no speaking.

Part 3 Performance:

• When the groups are ready to share-out their Season plays, ask students to help you come up with a performance order based on the order of the seasons we saw happen in the book we read,The Tiny Seed.
• During the performance, play the Vivaldi music that corresponds with their season.
• After the entire 4-season cycle has been performed, announce that you are now going to do something very tricky.
• Call out a different starting season and see if the students can still perform their plays in the correct order of the cycle.

Reflection Questions

Specific reflection questions for class discussion:

• How were the characters in our season roleplays different based on the season?
• How does weather change a setting? What sort of weather did we observe in our different season plays?
• What was the mood in each season? Why do you think that was?
• How did acting out your role plays help you remember the cycle of seasons?

Differentiation

Above Grade-Level:

• Give above-level small groups differentiated instructions when creating their 3-part role play of their season. Ask them to create dialogue in the form of a script for each part of their role play. So the role play would consist of 3 scenes. All scenes must include a spoken line by every group member. The lines should help us understand how characters respond to their setting in this specific season.

Below Grade-Level/EL Students:

• A week prior to the unit, begin letting below-level and EL students get familiar with grade-level specific informational texts on weather. Help build their background knowledge by introducing weather/season vocabulary.

Activities could include:

• Matching games with vocabulary word cards and matching illustrations that demonstrate meaning
• Direct students to write vocabulary words and illustrating the meaning of each word
• Youtube video songs that reinforce concepts and vocabulary:
  • 4 Seasons in a Year kids song
  • Check out the Weather!
  • Seasons Song Video

Appendix (See Downloads)

• Suggested Seasonal Props
• 3-Part Retell Document
• Season Role Play Rubric

Credits

U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education--Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program Cherokee County (GA) School District and ArtsNow, Inc. Ideas contributed and edited by: Robin Hatcher, Jody Staab, Ta-Tanisha Harris, Jessica Espinoza, Richard Benjamin Ph.D., Michele McClelland, Mary Ellen Johnson, Jane Gill

Learning Targets

“I Can…”

• Use a haiku to describe each season
• Create a haiku using my season vocabulary
• Use a haiku to express seasonal changes
• Place the four seasons in an order that makes a complete cycle

Essential Questions

• How can I use poetry to express the seasons and how they change throughout the cycle?

Technology Integration

• iPads

Examples of Digital Story-Telling Apps:

• Adobe Voice
• Voicethreading.com
• Scratch

Materials

Season Poetry selections (see Additional Resources); Cardboard pizza trays; Scissors; Glue; Tape; Ribbon; Paint; Coloring utensils; Scrapbooking materials; Magazines

Activating Strategy (5-10 min)

Main Activity

Part 1: Give students directions on how to write a Haiku:

• A haiku should contain only three lines, totaling 17 syllables throughout. The first line is only 5 syllables. The second line is 7 syllables. The third line is 5 syllables again.
• Direct students to create a haiku for each season. (See Downloads for a Haiku Template.)
• Remind students to refer back to the class list of season words we created during Project 1.
• Perform your haikus either in small groups or as a class.

Possible Extension:

• Allow students to then work in small groups to create choreography for their haikus.
• Review locomotive and non-locomotive movements they could use to develop their choreography.

Part 2 (OPTION A):

• Give students a large circular cardboard cut-out (pizza pie size).
• Poke a hole in the center of the circle.
• Partition the circle into fourths.
• Talk about each fourth of the circle representing a season, in the correct order of the cycle.
• Students either paint a season setting for each fourth OR rewrite their season haiku for each fourth.
• Give out ribbons, strings, construction paper, glue, and tape.
• Direct students to use the ribbons and paper to create items associated with the season that could then hang down from each season quadrant.
• This mobile could then be attached to a coat hanger to hang.
• Students could see how the cycle moves through the seasons.
• Exhibit the mobiles in a place where other students can come see.

Part 2 (OPTION B):

• Use a digital storytelling app to record students reading aloud their Season Haikus.
• Direct students to create a photo collage that represents each season.
• Magazines, children’s book sleeves, dried flowers, and scrapbooking materials can be used.
• Take a photo of the artwork.
• Voice thread the student’s voice recording to each illustration.
• Provide an opportunity for these Season Digital Storytelling Projects to be viewed together as an audience.

*This project could be done in groups of 4 students (each student can represent a different season) or done independently if time permits.

Reflection Questions

• How were the characters in our season roleplays different based on the season?
• How does weather change a setting? What sort of weather did we observe in our different season plays?
• What was the mood in each season? Why do you think that was?
• How did acting out your role plays help you remember the cycle of seasons?

Differentiation

Below Grade Level:

• You could place students in groups of four and direct each student to write a haiku for each of the four different seasons.
• They could just focus their energy on one season and then work together as a group to determine what order they should perform their poetry, in sequence with the cycle of the seasons.

Above Grade Level:

• See the “possible extension” on part one. Students can take poetry and then stage choreography to the words in their haikus. They could rehearse and perform their poetry in motion.
• Also the above-level group could do more with integrating the digital arts into their study of the seasons. They could work on recording their voices reading their poetry and then add images for each season. This digital storytelling project could be an ideal project for above-level students.

EL Students:

• Work with EL students before they write their haikus to remind them of key vocabulary words they may choose to use in their season poetry.
• Review with them how to clap out the syllables.
• Together identify the number of syllables in the words they choose to use in their poems so that the writing of the haiku is easier.
• Also see below grade level instructions for ways to modify the small group project.

Additional Resources

Books:

• Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber
• Handsprings by Douglas Florian
• Spring-An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur
• Weather: Poems for all Seasons by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Appendix (See Downloads)

• Haiku Template

Credits

U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education--Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program Cherokee County (GA) School District and ArtsNow, Inc. Ideas contributed and edited by: Robin Hatcher, Jody Staab, Ta-Tanisha Harris, Jessica Espinoza, Richard Benjamin Ph.D., Michele McClelland, Mary Ellen Johnson, Jane Gill

Learning Targets

“I Can…”

• Understand the importance of the weather
• Forecast the weather
• Create & perform body movements to represent daily weather happenings
• Collect 2 weeks of daily weather data
• Use a tally table and bar graph to tabulate weather data
• Collect and record 1 weeks’ worth of daily weather happenings
• Organize, create, and present/video-record my own weather data forecast

Essential Questions

• What are the different types of daily weather happenings and their characteristics?
• Why is forecasting the weather important to people around the world?
• Why is recording daily weather events important in order to make a weather forecast?

Technology Integration

• http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scientists/scientist12.html This website provides a short video in which you meet Meteorologist Howie Bluestein as he explains what his job entails.
• http://www.air-n-water.com/weather-forcasting-for-kids.htm This website provides a short, written explanation as to the methods in which meteorologists use when making their weather predictions/forecasts.
• This YouTube video (5 min 33 seconds) features Weather Forecasting for Kids with Meteorologist JD Rudd is full of useful information that the students may enjoy watching.)

Materials

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, chart paper, computer, projector, various writing utensils, video camera

Activating Strategy

• Teacher will show the class the cover of the book, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. Teacher will ask the class: What do you think the title and cover of this book has to do with weather? Discuss as a whole group.
• Read Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. After you reach the part in the book where there is an example of a “real” weather forecast, spend a few minutes having a class discussion on what the students know and or do not know about the topic of weather forecasting.
• Complete the rest of the book.

Main Activity

Part 1:

• Review the YouTube video clip of a real world example of a weather forecast on the evening news with Jason Brewer, a meteorologist from Florida: Here
• Show the students the example of the Wonderful Weather Forecasting Recording Sheet (see Downloads), either via the computer & projector or you could recreate this sheet on a large piece of chart paper or butcher paper.
• Explain to the students that for the next 2 weeks they will be observing the weather, recording the weather on a daily basis, as well as coming up with a body movement/dance (choreography) that goes along with the weather. (Example: A sunny day could be represented by putting your arms above your head in an arch to make a circle, and the students could have a big smile on their faces while their arms are raised in a circle like figure.) As a whole group they will record their observations on the recording sheet.
• To keep it simple, use the following list for weather observations: sunny, cloudy, scattered showers, thunderstorms, snow, ice.
• This activity will be done on a daily basis for 2 weeks: recording the weather and using the body movement that corresponds with the weather that day.

Part 2:

• On the 10th day of recording the weather as a whole group, the class will create a tally chart tallying the daily weather observations. Then the class will use the tally chart to create a bar graph. Using the collected data, a class discussion can take place on which weather observations happened the most or least. Remember to use the body movements/choreography as you review the 2 weeks’ worth of weather data.
• Review with the class what weather forecasting is. There are several books in the Additional Resources section, as well as video clips in the Technology Integration section, to assist in this class discussion.
• Explain to the class that they will be creating their own weather forecast, recording their weather observations for 5 days, and then performing their weather forecast for the class and or video recording the forecasts.
• Each student will receive a copy of the My 5-Day Weather Forecast Planning Sheet (see Downloads). Review the directions as a whole group.

Part 3:

• On the 6th day the students should return to school with their weather forecasting sheets already completed.
• At this point the teacher can decide how creative they will allow their students to get in regards to sharing their own 5-day weather forecast. It could be as simple as the students reading their forecasts in front of the class to adding more creativity to the project by adding props and recording the forecasts to reflect an actual weather forecast that is done on television.

Reflection Questions

• How were the characters in our season roleplays different based on the season?
• How does weather change a setting? What sort of weather did we observe in our different season plays?
• What was the mood in each season? Why do you think that was?
• How did acting out your role plays help you remember the cycle of seasons?

Differentiation

Below Grade Level:

• These students could do their illustrations for their 5-day weather project. They could also write the weather word being illustrated instead of using it in a complete sentence.

Above Grade Level:

• This group of students could do research on specific weather events such as: hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, cold fronts, etc. They could in turn share this new information with the class as a whole and or in small groups.

EL Students:

• These students would highly benefit from having several different children’s weather books as a resource throughout the project. They could also be partnered with an on grade-level or above grade-level student to assist with the actual presentation of the 5-day weather forecast/report.

Additional Resources

• Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today? By Tish Rabe
• Weather Forecasting by Gail Gibbons
• What Will the Weather Be Like Today? By Paul Rogers
• Freddy the Frogcaster and the Terrible Tornado by Janice Dean

Appendix (See Downloads)

• Weather Forecast Rubric
• My 5-Day Weather Forecast Planning Sheet
• Wonderful Weather Forecasting Recording Sheet

Credits

U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education--Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program Cherokee County (GA) School District and ArtsNow, Inc. Ideas contributed and edited by: Robin Hatcher, Jody Staab, Ta-Tanisha Harris, Jessica Espinoza, Richard Benjamin Ph.D., Michele McClelland, Mary Ellen Johnson, Jane Gill