Weather & Water Direct Instruction Fun!

ONE WEEK! My group, Kim & Amanda, had one week to plan 2 huge lessons to teach to the fourth grade. We were scheduled as group two until Dr. Smirnova switched us to group one. She switched us because she felt as if we were a good strong act to follow. When we were first told that we had to go first my group & I were nervous. We felt like we had no time to plan the lessons and teach effectively. We started planning immediately for our Direct Instruction lesson. We were meeting every day until the morning of our lesson. Our topic was Weather & Water. Planning for direct instruction was stressful. There was so much content we had to cover. When the time came to teach we went ahead and got the job done! 

We began our lesson by introducing ourselves to the fourth grade class. After introducing ourselves we began by sharing the classroom rules. We created these rules for the class this way they would have something to follow throughout the lessons. The classroom rules were formed like an acronym with the word LEARN. It said in fourth grade we.... Listen to directions, Encourage one another, Ask questions, Respect yourselves and others, & Never give up! These rules were important for the students to see and follow because they are encouraging.
 
After introducing the LEARN rules poster we introduced the tree of knowledge. The tree of knowledge was suppose be done on the day we went for getting to know you, but we didn't have time. We had the students write on two different colored post its. The yellow post it was for one thing they know about weather and water, and the blue post it was one thing they'd like to know about weather and water. This was good to start the lesson with because we knew what they wanted to know and were able to share with them that we'd be teaching them all about it! After introducing the tree of knowledge, Kim introduced the key terms notepad. The key terms note pad was to be follow throughout the whole lesson this way they can stay on track and pay attention. 

After the Tree of Knowledge we went ahead and introduced a Word Cloud to the students with key terms they would be learning during the lesson. The word cloud was in the shape of a cloud. We had the students read off words that they were familiar with, and if they weren't sure of a word we told them we'd be teaching it to them today anyways so beware! After that, we began teaching our information filled lesson! We taught about water, weather, the water cycle, why plants need water to live, air masses, the atmosphere, the seasons, what seasons are best for gardening, how much is okay to water a plant, and climate vs weather... all in one hour!!! We conducted multiple checks for understandings so we can see what the students were retaining and what we needed to re enforce and teach. We also showed two videos while teaching our lesson, keeping the students engaged. 

After fully teaching the lesson we continued and completed a guided practice with the students. The guided practice consisted of a water drop graphic organizer. This graphic organizer allowed the students to reflect on what they learned. We had them turn and talk to their buddy next to them and share a fact. We replicated the web on the board and filled out a few facts the students came up with. To end our lesson we had the students complete an exit ticket which consisted of 5 multiple choice questions and two short answer questions. This was their independent practice. Once all the students completed the independent practice it was time for the lesson to come to a close. We thanked them for allowing us to teach them and for being such good learners!
Time to reflect on our teaching! I think our lesson went great considering the time we had to plan and learn the content. I worked with such a great group of girls and I wouldn't have changed it for anything! We all did a wonderful job at teaching, were enthusiastic, and were excited to teach! The lesson was super informative, engaging, and overall great! I am so proud of my group and myself!