Habitat happenings (Lesson five)

This is lesson five in the series. During this lesson students will put the things they have learned from previous lessons into a creative writing assignment. The students will choose an animal to be and will describe themselves and their living environment.

A lesson plan for grade 1 English Language Arts

By Kelly Stewart

Learn more

• Thinking Maps information and links related to thinking maps

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Related topics

• Learn more about animals, habitats, language arts, pre-writing, stories, writing, and writing process.

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Learning outcomes

Students will write, edit, and illustrate a three to four sentence story about the animal of their choice. The story will include details about the animal’s habitat and will be typed up and posted on the class website at a later time.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

30 minutes

Materials/resources

• lined writing paper with picture space at the top
• pencils with erasers (for editing)
• chart paper
• markers

Technology resources

• internet access
• word processing software
• class webpage (homestead is what our school uses currently)

Pre-activities

Students should have completed lessons one through four in this series. They need to know what a habitat is and what things are in a habitat. They should have a working knowledge of the variety of habitats, such as the desert and the grasslands, and be able to name animals and plants that are located in each habitat.

Activities

1. The teacher will gather the students in a group on the rug. The teacher will explain to the students that they are going to be pretending they are animals in order to complete a writing assignment. The teacher will then allow a student to choose an animal for the teacher’s sample story.
2. After the student has selected an animal, the teacher will have the students brainstorm things about the animal and where it lives. The teacher will write these ideas on a chart or the board for later use when writing the story.
3. Next, the teacher will begin to compose a sample story on chart paper using the student’s ideas. The story should only be about three to four sentences long and the students should choose a different animal for their story. The teacher should also model the editing process for the students allowing them to point out any mistakes that need to be corrected.
4. After completing the sample, the students should be sent to their seats with paper to begin their stories. The students should pick the animal and use the back of their paper to brainstorm about their animal. They should use the listing to help them write three to four sentences about the animal and its habitat.
5. The teacher should be rotating during the writing process and encouraging students to use pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming.
6. After they have written their sentences, the students should return to their writing to check for mistakes and add punctuation. When the student and teacher are satisfied with the story the student should be sent to type the story. This could be done immediately following the writing or at a later date.
7. The story should then be posted on the class web site by the teacher for the public to view.

Assessment

The teacher will examine student writing to see if the student followed directions and created a factual story about the animal of their choice. The student should have sentences that describe the environment where the animal is living. The teacher will make sure that the student types the story for web posting.

Supplemental information

Thinking Maps training gives lots of ideas for brainstorming techniques and pre-writing activities

Comments

With younger students you could create a class story with an animal from each habitat rather than having each student write their own. Advanced writers could elaborate and add more sentences to their writing. This lesson is part of a series of lessons that form a unit on habitats. The lessons are as follows:

• Lesson 1: Habitat—what’s that?
• Lesson 2: Habitat hodgepodge
• Lesson 3: Whose habitat is that?
• Lesson 4: Match that habitat
• Lesson 5: Habitat happenings
• Zoo Visit
• Lesson 6: Habitat homework