Hurricane Literacy Lesson Plan:
Grade Level/Subject: 1st Grade Science and Literacy
Prerequisite Knowledge: Components of a hurricane
Approximate Time: 2 hours, can be broken into a 2 day activity
Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:
Students will discover the difference of a watch and a warning for hurricane forecasting. Students will demonstrate their knowledge by creating a page in their hazardous weather brochure about the difference for watches and warnings in a hurricane.
Content Standards:
Language Arts:
1.C.1d Summarize content of reading material using text organization (e.g., story, sequence).
1.B.1a Establish purposes for reading, make predictions, connect important ideas, and link text to previous experiences and knowledge.
Science:
11.A.1a Describe an observed event.
12.E.1b Identify and describe patterns of weather and seasonal change.
WIDA Standards for ELL:
English Language Proficiency Standard 4, Level 2: Search for words in big books or trade books associated with water or other natural resources
Materials/Resources/Technology:
Copy of Hurricane! By Jules Archer
Piece of paper for Think-Pain-Share
Page for Hazardous Weather Brochure, depending on level
Implementation:
Opening of lesson:
Show a real life example of a warning or watch of hurricane from a TV. (A national weather service report) Ask if they know what the difference is? If they use these words, will you know what to do? Will you know what it means?
(Teachers Note: Each weather unit will include a lesson where they learn about the warnings and watches. Depending on the order of the unit, relate what a hurricane watch and warning is to a tornado, blizzard, heat wave, and thunderstorm warning and watch. Students will know that there is a difference between the two and they know that this is something that will be put in their Hazardous Weather Brochure {see assessment section})
Procedures:
1. Students will get into assigned small groups.
2. Each student will get a copy of the book. A copy of the book will be put on the smartboard, or will be read from a big book for the teacher.
3. To start the teacher will read the book aloud and students will follow along.
4. Teacher will stop at certain words that have been already learned from previous lessons in the unit on hurricanes and are on the word wall (the word wall is a wall with words that they have learned throughout the hurricane unit). Teacher will review the words and students will identify them. (such as wind, rain, flood, inland, coast, air, ocean, season, duration, location, hurricane, etc)
5. Teacher will have the students read small sections in their groups
6. At certain points along the story, the teacher will stop and ask a question, have the students summarize what they read, or look at the charts and pictures. (Questions will relate to the objective of the lesson, which is to learn the different between a watch and a warning. The difference we identify is the amount of time before the storm is supposed to hit land, how fast the wind is going, and what people need to do to prepare when they hear there is a warning or a watch) These questions include: How many days before the storm is it? What are they doing at this point to prepare for the storm? How fast were the winds going? What does miles per hour mean? What destruction did the storm cause? And other clarifying and comprehension questions
7. Students will think about the question individually
8. Students will pair with a partner or small group and share their thoughts
9. Students will share their thoughts with the large group, telling what their group discussed
10. Teacher and students will finish reading the book
11. Students will add words to word walla. Class will add words: hurricane warning, hurricane watch, and miles per hour, to the word wall, which is a bulletin board with all the words that are associated with their hurricane unit.
b. On one side of the card will be the word written in English, on the other side, the class will come up with an appropriate definition for how they are using it. This is something the class will do together and everyone will agree on what is written on the back. The teacher will write the words and definition
c. If students are unaware of the word or need additional help finding the meaning, students will be able to use a dictionary. Spanish and English dictionaries are available
12. Teacher will ask question of what the book told us was the difference between a warning and a watch? What would you tell people to know?
13. Teacher will ask the following three questions and repeat the think-pair-share activity. After each question, the teacher will write on the board what they students identified)
· How long until the storm is supposed to hit land for a watch? Warning?
· How fast are the winds for a watch? Warning?
· What should a family do to prepare during a watch? Warning?
14. Teacher will write on the board (This is the information they will write in their brochure, which is also described in the assessment section. The students have been working on this throughout the weather unit and hurricane lessons so they are familiar with the process and what they are expected to do):
Watch:
o Storm might land in 2 days
o Winds over 73 miles per hour
o Listen to radio or television
o Prepare home for storm
o Plan evacuation route
o Make a disaster kit (which we will go over in the next lesson/activity)
Warning:
o Strom likely to reach land
o Wind over 73 miles per hour
o Review plan
o Stay indoors
15. Students will add this to their brochure
a. Students who do not need help can copy from the board
b. Student who need some direction will have lined paper to write their words on
c. Student who need added help will have sheets with lines and differences of warnings and watches outlined for them but they have to write the headings of watch and warning
Summary/Closing:
Tell them that they are really coming along with their brochure. Ask the students to go back and look at the hurricane sections already completed in their brochure. Tell them to review individually the sections that they have already completed (4 components of a hurricane, wind speeds, size, duration, location, and season) and have one student read out loud.
End it by saying now they need a safety kit to have for when there is a real life warning or watch, just like the book suggests. This will help them know what to prepare for when there is a storm and this will help them survive the storm (Note: this will be done in the next lesson at a future time)
Student Assessment:
Were students able to distinguish the difference between a warning and watch? Were they able to fill out their brochure completely displaying their knowledge of the difference between the classifications?
This unit is a project-based unit in which the final assessment is completion of a Hazardous Weather Brochure graded on a rubric. Each storm will include the basics of the weather pattern, the difference between a watch and a warning, and safety. This lesson completed the difference between a watch and a warning section for the hurricane storm.
Watch:
o Storm might land in 2 days
o Winds over 73 miles per hour
o Listen to radio or television
o Prepare home for storm
o Plan evacuation route
o Make a disaster kit (which we will go over in the next lesson/activity)
Warning:
o Strom likely to reach land
o Wind over 73 miles per hour
o Review plan
o Stay indoors
Literacy Activities:
Students will use literacy and reading a story to learn information about the different between a storm watch and warning. Students will discover that they can learn information about storms through more ways then a textbook and that looking at personal narratives and stories can give them information. Literacy is a great way to have students learn about key science concepts that they may not be able model or as an alternative way to learn the information. Adding a personal narrative or story will interest the students.
Along with this literacy activity, there will be a whole group literacy activity, in which the teacher will read aloud the book Twisters and Other Terrible Storms by Mary Pope Osborne, which is part of the Magic Tree House series. This is a second grade level book, but has a lot of information that students will discover about hurricanes and will input into their brochure. This is just a read aloud activity that the class will participate in during extra time or between transitions. The students have been reading Magic Tree House series throughout the school year, and the book that they will be reading from the series during this unit is about storms to help make connections and for them to see hurricanes in many contexts and integrated in other parts of the curriculum.
Another activity we will do is to get the students talking and using their descriptive words to describe a hurricane and using vocabulary. They will create a spiral poem. This is done by first giving the students a copy of a spiral. Lead the students in compiling a list of words, phrases and sounds associated with hurricanes, such as roaring winds, rains, whoosh, crack and falling branches, and vocabulary words that have been mentioned and used. Have the students write the words around the spiral on the activity sheet to create picture poetry. Cut out the student’s picture poems and hang them around the room.
These literacy activities fit well into the unit and allow the students to discover information about the hurricane storm through reading and writing. They will make connections and see integrations of other subjects in the curriculum. This will make the learning process one joint collaboration between all subjects.
ELL Strategies:
Using pre-assigned groups so the students know exactly where to go and have groups of abilities and levels so they help each other with the thinking. Putting ELL students together may also allow the students to check with each other for understanding.
Using think-pair-share for students allows for both small group and large group discussions to check for understanding.
Providing differentiated activities in the brochure allows ELL students and all students to complete the activity at the appropriate level.
The teacher will read aloud to the students and use buddy reading.
Building vocabulary by explicitly pointing out new and already learned vocabulary words.
Differentiation:
When students are completing their brochure, the activity will be differentiated according to their level and ability. This is seen with copying it from the board, using lined paper, or tracing the words already lined for them.
Back to Hurricane Lesson Plans
Grade Level/Subject: 1st Grade Science and Literacy
Prerequisite Knowledge: Components of a hurricane
Approximate Time: 2 hours, can be broken into a 2 day activity
Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:
Students will discover the difference of a watch and a warning for hurricane forecasting. Students will demonstrate their knowledge by creating a page in their hazardous weather brochure about the difference for watches and warnings in a hurricane.
Content Standards:
Language Arts:
1.C.1d Summarize content of reading material using text organization (e.g., story, sequence).
1.B.1a Establish purposes for reading, make predictions, connect important ideas, and link text to previous experiences and knowledge.
Science:
11.A.1a Describe an observed event.
12.E.1b Identify and describe patterns of weather and seasonal change.
WIDA Standards for ELL:
English Language Proficiency Standard 4, Level 2: Search for words in big books or trade books associated with water or other natural resources
Materials/Resources/Technology:
Copy of Hurricane! By Jules Archer
Piece of paper for Think-Pain-Share
Page for Hazardous Weather Brochure, depending on level
Implementation:
Opening of lesson:
Show a real life example of a warning or watch of hurricane from a TV. (A national weather service report) Ask if they know what the difference is? If they use these words, will you know what to do? Will you know what it means?
(Teachers Note: Each weather unit will include a lesson where they learn about the warnings and watches. Depending on the order of the unit, relate what a hurricane watch and warning is to a tornado, blizzard, heat wave, and thunderstorm warning and watch. Students will know that there is a difference between the two and they know that this is something that will be put in their Hazardous Weather Brochure {see assessment section})
Procedures:
1. Students will get into assigned small groups.
2. Each student will get a copy of the book. A copy of the book will be put on the smartboard, or will be read from a big book for the teacher.
3. To start the teacher will read the book aloud and students will follow along.
4. Teacher will stop at certain words that have been already learned from previous lessons in the unit on hurricanes and are on the word wall (the word wall is a wall with words that they have learned throughout the hurricane unit). Teacher will review the words and students will identify them. (such as wind, rain, flood, inland, coast, air, ocean, season, duration, location, hurricane, etc)
5. Teacher will have the students read small sections in their groups
6. At certain points along the story, the teacher will stop and ask a question, have the students summarize what they read, or look at the charts and pictures. (Questions will relate to the objective of the lesson, which is to learn the different between a watch and a warning. The difference we identify is the amount of time before the storm is supposed to hit land, how fast the wind is going, and what people need to do to prepare when they hear there is a warning or a watch) These questions include: How many days before the storm is it? What are they doing at this point to prepare for the storm? How fast were the winds going? What does miles per hour mean? What destruction did the storm cause? And other clarifying and comprehension questions
7. Students will think about the question individually
8. Students will pair with a partner or small group and share their thoughts
9. Students will share their thoughts with the large group, telling what their group discussed
10. Teacher and students will finish reading the book
11. Students will add words to word walla. Class will add words: hurricane warning, hurricane watch, and miles per hour, to the word wall, which is a bulletin board with all the words that are associated with their hurricane unit.
b. On one side of the card will be the word written in English, on the other side, the class will come up with an appropriate definition for how they are using it. This is something the class will do together and everyone will agree on what is written on the back. The teacher will write the words and definition
c. If students are unaware of the word or need additional help finding the meaning, students will be able to use a dictionary. Spanish and English dictionaries are available
12. Teacher will ask question of what the book told us was the difference between a warning and a watch? What would you tell people to know?
13. Teacher will ask the following three questions and repeat the think-pair-share activity. After each question, the teacher will write on the board what they students identified)
· How long until the storm is supposed to hit land for a watch? Warning?
· How fast are the winds for a watch? Warning?
· What should a family do to prepare during a watch? Warning?
14. Teacher will write on the board (This is the information they will write in their brochure, which is also described in the assessment section. The students have been working on this throughout the weather unit and hurricane lessons so they are familiar with the process and what they are expected to do):
Watch:
o Storm might land in 2 days
o Winds over 73 miles per hour
o Listen to radio or television
o Prepare home for storm
o Plan evacuation route
o Make a disaster kit (which we will go over in the next lesson/activity)
Warning:
o Strom likely to reach land
o Wind over 73 miles per hour
o Review plan
o Stay indoors
15. Students will add this to their brochure
a. Students who do not need help can copy from the board
b. Student who need some direction will have lined paper to write their words on
c. Student who need added help will have sheets with lines and differences of warnings and watches outlined for them but they have to write the headings of watch and warning
Summary/Closing:
Tell them that they are really coming along with their brochure. Ask the students to go back and look at the hurricane sections already completed in their brochure. Tell them to review individually the sections that they have already completed (4 components of a hurricane, wind speeds, size, duration, location, and season) and have one student read out loud.
End it by saying now they need a safety kit to have for when there is a real life warning or watch, just like the book suggests. This will help them know what to prepare for when there is a storm and this will help them survive the storm (Note: this will be done in the next lesson at a future time)
Student Assessment:
Were students able to distinguish the difference between a warning and watch? Were they able to fill out their brochure completely displaying their knowledge of the difference between the classifications?
This unit is a project-based unit in which the final assessment is completion of a Hazardous Weather Brochure graded on a rubric. Each storm will include the basics of the weather pattern, the difference between a watch and a warning, and safety. This lesson completed the difference between a watch and a warning section for the hurricane storm.
Watch:
o Storm might land in 2 days
o Winds over 73 miles per hour
o Listen to radio or television
o Prepare home for storm
o Plan evacuation route
o Make a disaster kit (which we will go over in the next lesson/activity)
Warning:
o Strom likely to reach land
o Wind over 73 miles per hour
o Review plan
o Stay indoors
Literacy Activities:
Students will use literacy and reading a story to learn information about the different between a storm watch and warning. Students will discover that they can learn information about storms through more ways then a textbook and that looking at personal narratives and stories can give them information. Literacy is a great way to have students learn about key science concepts that they may not be able model or as an alternative way to learn the information. Adding a personal narrative or story will interest the students.
Along with this literacy activity, there will be a whole group literacy activity, in which the teacher will read aloud the book Twisters and Other Terrible Storms by Mary Pope Osborne, which is part of the Magic Tree House series. This is a second grade level book, but has a lot of information that students will discover about hurricanes and will input into their brochure. This is just a read aloud activity that the class will participate in during extra time or between transitions. The students have been reading Magic Tree House series throughout the school year, and the book that they will be reading from the series during this unit is about storms to help make connections and for them to see hurricanes in many contexts and integrated in other parts of the curriculum.
Another activity we will do is to get the students talking and using their descriptive words to describe a hurricane and using vocabulary. They will create a spiral poem. This is done by first giving the students a copy of a spiral. Lead the students in compiling a list of words, phrases and sounds associated with hurricanes, such as roaring winds, rains, whoosh, crack and falling branches, and vocabulary words that have been mentioned and used. Have the students write the words around the spiral on the activity sheet to create picture poetry. Cut out the student’s picture poems and hang them around the room.
These literacy activities fit well into the unit and allow the students to discover information about the hurricane storm through reading and writing. They will make connections and see integrations of other subjects in the curriculum. This will make the learning process one joint collaboration between all subjects.
ELL Strategies:
Using pre-assigned groups so the students know exactly where to go and have groups of abilities and levels so they help each other with the thinking. Putting ELL students together may also allow the students to check with each other for understanding.
Using think-pair-share for students allows for both small group and large group discussions to check for understanding.
Providing differentiated activities in the brochure allows ELL students and all students to complete the activity at the appropriate level.
The teacher will read aloud to the students and use buddy reading.
Building vocabulary by explicitly pointing out new and already learned vocabulary words.
Differentiation:
When students are completing their brochure, the activity will be differentiated according to their level and ability. This is seen with copying it from the board, using lined paper, or tracing the words already lined for them.
Back to Hurricane Lesson Plans