This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| The Flag We Love - The Flag is an Important Symbol of the United States: | This is lesson # 4 in the text unit series for The Flag We Love. This lesson will use pages (1-2, 28-29) of the text to focus on students' oral retelling using the topic and details about the American Flag. Students will learn the concept of a symbol and recognize the American flag as a symbol of the United States, learning that the stars represent the 50 states, and the stripes represent the 13 original colonies. To demonstrate learning, students will create their own representation of the American flag, and orally present their flag while discussing the meaning of the stars and stripes.
This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource. |
| Monkey Business: A Problem: | In this close reading lesson, the teacher will read aloud Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Students will answer text-dependent questions and explain the meaning of new vocabulary. They will identify sight words and choral read repetitive parts of the text. Students will identify the setting, characters, and important events (including the problem and solution) and record these on a story map. They will retell the story and create a tri-fold book with illustrations and sentences explaining the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After analyzing the text, students will draw and dictate or write to explain the problem and solution in the text. |
| The Kissing Hand and A Pocket Full of Kisses: Compare and Contrast: | In this close reading lesson, students will compare and contrast the actions of the characters in two of Audrey Penn's beloved books, The Kissing Hand and A Pocket Full of Kisses. They will answer text-dependent questions, and they will describe and sequence story elements as they analyze the two books. Students will truly enjoy interacting with these two delightful stories! |
| Around the World with Cinderella: | It really is amazing that a familiar story such as Cinderella can be found in so many different places around the world. Each story adheres to very similar story elements, but also includes its own culture and traditions. In this lesson, students will identify story elements from two Cinderella stories, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters which takes place in Zimbabwe and the French version of Cinderella by Marica Brown. Students will compare and contrast these stories using a Venn diagram. Additional versions can also be shared, culminating in students choosing their favorite version to write an opinion writing piece about. |
| Five Little Monkeys: Comparing and Contrasting: | In this close reading lesson, students will compare and contrast the actions of the characters in two of Eileen Christelow's beloved books, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree. They will answer text-dependent questions and describe story elements as they analyze the two books. Students will truly enjoy interacting with these two delightful stories! |
| If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Take Him to School: Comparing and Contrasting: | In this close reading lesson, students will compare and contrast the actions of the characters in two of Laura Numeroff's beloved books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Take a Mouse to School. They will answer text-dependent questions, and they will describe and sequence story elements as they analyze the two books. Students will truly enjoy interacting with these two delightful stories! |
| Colors All Around Us: Using Colors to Describe Our World: | In this lesson, students will use the beautiful text Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger to explore how an author uses color words and illustrations to describe various real-world objects. They will identify and explain how the descriptive words provide meaning and how the illustrations support the text. Students will brainstorm real-life objects that can be described and classified using color words and write an expository piece to describe those objects. |
| Speechless for Breakfast: | In this lesson, students will work together to "read" Pancakes for Breakfast, a wordless picture book by Tomie dePaola which shows the sequence of events the main character follows in preparing her own breakfast. Students will identify the story elements in the book based on its illustrations and retell the story by sequencing the important events. They will then create their own wordless picture book depicting their breakfast routine, presenting their routine and illustrations orally using complete sentences. |
| Sequential Story Tellers: | In this lesson, students will become story sequencers as they participate in whole group, partner, and independent activities. Students will recall important events from the story The Little Red Hen and help generate a class story to demonstrate their understanding of beginning, middle, and end before completing their summative assessment. At the end of the lesson students will become authors of their own narrative when they write a sequential story of a special event. They will use suggestions and revisions from their peers and teacher to create a final draft of their narrative that will be shared with the class. |
| The Grouchy Ladybug and The Mixed-Up Chameleon: | In this multi-day lesson, students will engage in a variety of literacy activities while reading The Grouchy Ladybug and The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. Students will answer text-dependent questions as they describe the characters, setting, and important events in the story. They will complete a story map and story sequence organizer and use them to retell what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of each story. Finally, they will use the two graphic organizers to plan their own narrative about what happens next to one of the characters. |
| Do You Like Green Eggs and Ham?: | In this 5-day lesson, students will engage in a variety of activities using the beloved Dr. Seuss books, Green Eggs and Ham and Wacky Wednesday. Students will explain the roles of the author and illustrator of a story. They will identify rhyming words in the stories and produce additional words that rhyme. Students will answer text-dependent questions to complete a story map and sequencing graphic organizer about each story. Using the graphic organizers, students will retell the stories. Finally, students will choose their favorite Dr. Seuss book and write an opinion statement telling why the book is their favorite. |
| Going Camping: | In this lesson, students will learn about camping by reading stories about familiar characters that have gone camping, including Little Critter, Fred and Ted, and Curious George. Students will learn about how to make a camping list and compare and contrast the experiences of the characters in the stories using a Venn Diagram. They will create an opinion explaining what they think are the most important items to take camping. |
| Gingerbread Boy or Gingerbread Girl?: | This is a fun lesson where students will be asked to compare the characters two popular gingerbread tales using a graphic organizer. Then, they will write an opinion sentence explaining which book was their favorite and why. |
| Comparing and Contrasting with Frog and Toad: | In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the experiences of the familiar characters, Frog and Toad, by completing t-charts and composing a response about the similarities and differences in the characters' experiences. |
| My Caterpillar Loves to Eat!: | In this lesson, students will listen to the teacher read aloud the well-loved book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Students will collaboratively practice retelling the story with a partner and record the food that the caterpillar ate on a class chart. Using their imagination, students will create a sentence and accompanying illustration of what their caterpillar would eat using the high frequency word ‘and’. Teachers are provided with a rubric to assess how the students are using punctuationusing punctuation, capitalization, finger spacing, and phonetic spelling. |
| An Unlikey Friend or Foe: | In this lesson, students will listen to The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and will analyze the main character's actions and reactions to their adventures by comparing and contrasting using a Venn diagram. Students will also be given an opportunity to think and write about times that they have been grumpy or peaceful using grade-appropriate conventions of writing and phonetic spelling. |
| Retelling a Story: | This lesson is part of a kindergarten unit on plot. In this lesson, students will listen to the story My Red Balloon by Eve Bunting and then practice retelling the story using important details from the text. Other lessons in this unit are attached as related CPALMS resources. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
