Lesson Plan Template Overview

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Social Studies

Age/Grade of Children: Three and four year olds
Length of Lesson: At least one week
Goal
Objective

To develop a deeper understanding of the outside world.

At the end of the lesson the children should be able to demonstrate the
knowledge they have learned about winter in other states and other areas of the
world. The children should also be able to indicate how people and animals
address winter.

Standards Included

-With modeling and support, the child determines the meanings of unknown
words and concepts using the context of conversations, pictures that
accompany text or concrete objects (Arizona Department of Education, 2013).
-Understand the characteristics of weather and how it affects people.
-Applies current knowledge to new situations.
-Recognizes that people share the environment with other people, animals, and
plants.
- Understands similarities and respects the differences among people.

Materials

Posters or pictures of winter in various locations, large box and brown packing
paper to create a cave, construction paper for penguin and polar bear art
project, penguin counters, and Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancraft.

Introduction

The introduction will consist of a group circle time looking at pictures of other
states and countries that show winter scenes. The teacher will guide the class
into a discussion of what winter is, what it feels like, and what people and
animals do during the winter. The children will be asked to see who has been
out of state during the winter and what it was like.

Lesson Development:

The teacher will show on a map where the children live and what parts of the
country see more effects of winter. Once the materials for the activities are
placed in the class the teacher will demonstrate the correct way to use the
materials and discourage inappropriate use.

Differentiation

Due to the range of age between the youngest three year old and the oldest
four year old, modifications can be created in most of the activities. Children
who are anxious to quickly finish an art project will do their project first while
children who want to put more time and effort into their projects will be in a
second group that allows for more time. All books selected for the lesson plan
are short enough to keep the attention of the entire group but long enough to
spark interest and intrigue. Physical activities will allow for two groups and
the children who are not as physically capable will be in one group, and
children who are steadier on their feet will be in the second group.

Practice/ Checking for

Understanding
(Assessment)

Assessments will take place before and after materials are made available.
Children will be observed in what they may understand about winter in other
areas of the world and then assessed again at the end of the unit to see what
types of information has been retained. The teacher will take anecdotal
recordings and take pictures of the projects and the activities that the children
are doing during the week. The teacher will use both teacher guided and child
directed activities to observe. Observation will occur both directly during one
on one activities between the teacher and the child as well as indirectly as the
teacher observes the child doing activities on his own and with his peers. This
will give the teacher the opportunity to review notes about what activities have
provided the most useful while learning about how the world experiences
winter.

Closing

At the end of the week the teacher will once again bring the children together
and they will discuss in the group what they enjoyed about the winter lesson
plan. This will give the teacher the opportunity to make adjustments to future
lesson plans. Closing activities can include discussions on spring and the ice
melting science experiment. Children will be prompted to discuss what
happens to the snow in areas that receive a large quantity of snow throughout
the winter. The teacher will also ask how the animals might know it is time to
wake up from hibernation.

Lesson Plan Template

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Cognitive
Age/Grade of Children: Three and four year olds
Length of Lesson: At least one week
Goal

The goal of this area of the lesson plan will be increase cognitive learning
through the new concepts presented throughout the winter theme.

Objective

At the end of the unit children should be able to indicate that they are able to
think more in depth about new ideas and concepts. The children will ask
questions to obtain a deeper understanding about unfamiliar ideas.

Standards Included

-Works to solve a problem independently (Arizona Department of Education,

2013).
-Recognizes problems and tries to solve them.
-Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events and experiences
-Exhibits curiosity about objects, living things, and other natural
-events in the environment by using one or more senses.
-Describes changes in objects, living things, and the natural events in the
environment.

Materials

Homemade snow sensory play, winter sensory bottles, ice, sand, salt and sugar
(for ice melting experiment), penguin counters, puppets, felt pieces. Paper,
crayons, and pictures of animals to make Snow or No? Animal Graphing
charts.

Introduction

The teacher will introduce the winter theme focusing on cognition by asking
the children to experiment with the homemade snow sensory play. Children
will be asked how they think snow is made and what effect it has on our
environment. The class will discuss how water freezes and what hibernation is.

Lesson Development

The lesson will develop daily starting in morning circle time. Children will be
read a book each day that depicts winter. Afterwards materials and activities
will be available and correspond with the concepts in the books. Materials will
be present in all areas of the classroom so that children can examine different
aspects surrounding winter.

Differentiation

It is important that all children regardless of age or differentiation have the

ability and the freedom to explore and examine the materials. All materials
will be age appropriate and safe enough for children to use freely. This will
enhance their personal cognitive development as they see how their actions
create counter reactions.
Assessment in cognitive development will be done by anecdotal recordings
done by the teacher. To watch for cognitive development the teacher will again
take photographs of the projects completed by the children and compare it to
other projects throughout the remainder of the year. Cognitive development is
an ongoing process and while some apparent changes may be seen in the
course of the week, it is best for the teacher to assess cognitive development
over a longer time frame.

Practice/ Checking for

Understanding
(Assessment)

Closing

The unit on winter will end as the teacher talks about what the children
discovered throughout the week. The teacher will ask them what they
remembered about winter and what effects winter has on both people and
animals. The children will also be asked about the stories that they read and
what parts they enjoyed. On the final day of the unit children will be asked to
work as a group to create their own story about winter which can be presented
as a play, a puppet show or with the use of felt pieces.