OUR BIG BOOK: The Fall Festival- by Mercer Mayer

GRADE LEVEL: 1ST

IN DEPTH: FALL RITUALS
PHASE 1 PLANNING:
1. Rational:
a. Why did you choose this book to work with? What makes it
a good book to use for two weeks or more?
i. We chose the book The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer
because we feel that it covers our main theme of fall
rituals. Fall is a large topic that can be broken down;
therefore it makes for a good theme for a long unit.
Doing a fall unit during the actual season not only
helps the students in the classroom but also allows
them to have a better understanding of what is
happening in the world around them. We believe that
children have a lot to gain from this book because
they can learn about fall rituals while enhancing their
knowledge of literacy. Our main focus will be
vocabulary, punctuation, and creative writing. While
we will be focusing on literacy, fall can easily be
incorporated into the common core curriculum.
b. What is the key idea that you will have children working
with?
i. We will want our students to walk away with a great
understanding of how they as human being know
that it is the fall season. While they are learning
about fall, they will also get a better understanding
of vocabulary and punctuation skills that are crucial
to learn during first grade.
c. How are your plans connected to what younger readers
need to develop as readers and thinkers?
i. This lesson is going incorporate a lot that we have
learned from Paley and Miller. Throughout these
readings, we have learned how to implement useful
strategies such as making meaningful connection,
reflecting upon stories, creating lessons, asking
questions, and making conversations deeper. We
have learned this from Millers book, Reading with
Meaning, and got examples from Paleys classroom in
her book, The Girl with the Brown Crayon. Some
more important quotes that we found to be useful
when creating this lesson were:
1. Giving children a frame work for thinking and
talking about appropriate ways to ask someone

to stop helps build respectful, caring

communities (Miller, pg 97).
2. When we plan with the end in mind, we set
our goals for children first. We ask ourselves,
what do I want children to know, understand,
and be able to do at the end of a study and
remember ten years from now (Miller, pg 70).
3. Readers create images to form unique
interpretations, clarify thinking, draw
conclusions, and enhance understanding
(Miller, pg 105).
4. I too require passion in the classroom. I need
the intense preoccupation of a group of
children and teachers inventing new worlds as
they learn to know each others dreams. To
invent is to come alive (Paley, pg 50)
5. As often happens, our discussion of the book
proceeds quite differently the next day (Paley,
pg 55).
ii. Connections to Holdaways Model of Discovery
1. We find that corporate experiences of
culturally significant language have always
been powerful modes of learning
a. Discussing Thanksgiving and everyones
different ways of celebrating is a great
opportunity to learn a variety of
vocabulary words while encouraging
cultural significances in the fall season.
2. Reading to a group of children in school has
little instructional value simply because the
print cannot be seen, shared, and discussed.
a. This shows that big books will promote
literacy because the children can clearly
see the words and follow along, while
familiarizing with new words.
3. Increasingly we have come to see ourselves
as attendants and facilitators of natural
processes rather than as instructors
a. We used this idea from Holdaway by
allowing creativity for our art projects
and activities. While we gave guidance,
there was a vast amount of room for
children to create their own processes.
iii. Children begin to see books as sources of personal
pleasure and derive from them a type of satisfaction
they can secure in no other way. They quickly learn

how to handle books in the physical sense and begin

to use them in their independent access to the
experience they enjoy so much (Doake, pg 3)
1. Our goals as a teacher are to demonstrate and
inform children about how to use books to
enhance their knowledge and reflect upon what
they are reading about. By providing various
books and activities, we are showing students
the way to do so.
2. Two-Three week plan
a. Week 1- Day 1: read Fall Festival to them
b. Discussion about the book
i. What things do you think describe fall?
ii. What is another name for fall?
iii. What is your favorite part of fall?
iv. What colors make you think of fall?
v. What holidays are in the fall?
vi. What do you do during those holidays?
vii. What do you do during Halloween?
viii. What do you do during Thanksgiving?
ix. Does everyone celebrate?
x. What is the weather like?
xi. What clothes do you wear?
c. Go over vocabulary/spelling/capitalization- Use sticky post
it
i. Fall Festival, leaves, wagon, apples, cider, hayride,
pumpkins, picking, apple pie, Halloween, horseshoe,
prizes.
d. Teacher will first highlight/underline the vocabulary words
in the book to show students how they are used in a
sentence.
e. Together, teacher will write vocab words on the board
f. After a couple words are demonstrated, students will have
an opportunity to come up to the board and write/sound
out each word.
g. If they are nervous to come up to the board, they may call
out the letters together.
h. Have students draw picture for each vocabulary word and
correctly spell the word.
i. Independent experience-20 minutes for D.E.A.R
j. **once read, books will be on display on the window sill.
Students will be encouraged to look through these books
during D.E.A.R and during project time for inspiration and
ideas. It is inevitable that some students will connect with
specific books while other students will not, and that is why
providing many examples will be beneficial to the whole

class. Our classroom library will always be available to the

students, and it will be filled with books that deal with the
fall season and books read from the past, classroom
favorites, and teachers favorites.
k. Week 1- Day 2: Reread the book- vocab words are
covered up
l. Fall activity (In the fall, I see I hear I feel I smell I
taste)- they will use their vocabulary words to create fall
sentences.
m. Fall Craft- Make a picture using four stencils and write one
sentence what is happening in the picture.
n. Independent experience-20 Minutes of D.E.A.R- students
can try to find vocabulary words in their book of choice.
o. Week 1- Day 3: going to read There was an Old Lady who
Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro.
p. Ask the kids before we read to make predictions of what is
going to happen in the book.
q. While reading, we need to write down what the old lady
eats in order (learning the first the old lady did this, second
she ate this etc)
r. While reading this book aloud, I would incorporate a cloze,
and have all of the students read the sequence each time
something is added in the same rhythm.
s. Old lady activity- we will pass out a hand out and they will
color and cut out the different character and put in Old
Lady stomach. See PowerPoint for example of activity.
t. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R- while they
are reading their book of choice, they are encouraged to
find the order in which things happen in the story.
u. Week 1- Day 4: go back to the book Fall Festival
v. Cover vocabulary words in the book and have the kids say
the word and chant out of the spelling of each word.
w. Students make their own perfect pumpkin with
construction paper and other material that we will provide.
x. Once their pumpkin is complete, they write a sentence
using three vocab words.
y. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R
z. Week 1- Day 5: Its HALLOWEEN! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (If
school allows costumes, students may wear theirs.)
aa.
Read Click, Clack, Boo by Doreen Cronin- When
students hear a vocabulary word in the book, they will
raise their hand and go up to the board to write the word
so everyone can see. They will all spell it out loud when he
or she is done writing it.
ab.
Ask the students
i. What are they dressing up as for Halloween?

ii. What is their favorite candy?

iii. What are they afraid of?
ac.Monster Tissue Box Craft will be introduced
ad.
All students write on a piece paper what they are
afraid of. If they do not want to do that, they can say what
they are going to be for Halloween.
ae.
Teacher will copy all of the students and have them
cut it out and put in each of the tissue boxes.
af. Halloween music will be playing in the background when
students are making their box.
ag.
Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents are encouraged to write down every word that
they do not know to make a vocabulary list of their own.
ah.
Week 2- Day 1: Welcome students back to class.
Ask them about their Halloween experiences.
ai. Ask them what the next holiday in the fall is going to be.
aj. Do you remember things that happen during the fall?
(Leaves changing, food we eat, what we wearetc)
ak.
Re-read big book (Fall Festival) with punctuation
lesson included.
al. Gradual Release of responsibility- First, we as a class we
will create a sentence, question and exclamation about fall
and write it on the board. Then they will discuss a question,
sentence, and exclamation with a partner. Finally, have
students write sentences about their favorite part of fall
incorporating punctuation.
am.
Write on a cut out leaf, and hang on a tree on bulletin
board. Questions, exclamations, and sentences are
encouraged. (Leaves will be falling off the tree) (Ask them
why I made it this way.)
an.
Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents should make note of the different types of
punctuation in their book
ao.
Week 2- Day 2: Read Pumpkin Time! By Erzsi Deak
ap.
Discuss
i. What Evy was doing the whole time?
ii. Why they were coming together?
iii. Do you have a big feast with your friends and family?
iv. What types of food do you have?
aq.
Since Evy made a pie at the end of the book, we are
going to create our own pies with two paper plates, paint,
and other scraps they want to put into it. They may make
their own flavor or make up a flavor.
ar. After they create their pie, each student is encouraged to
stand up and present what they made to the class.

as.Remind class that tomorrow is our field trip day and

students must have all their slips in before tomorrow.
at. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R- encourage
students to highlight specific sentences that they think are
important and if they want to share they can.
au.
Week 2- Day 3: FIELD TRIP TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH
av.While at the Pumpkin Patch, students will make
observations of what they see, feel, and hear.
aw.
When they get back to the school, students will be
given a notecard.
ax.
On one side they will write their name and on the
other write My favorite part of the field trip was
Teacher will pull notecard out and have the student share.
ay. Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R
az.Week 2- Day 4: Read the book The Apple Orchard Riddle
by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas.
ba.
Explain to the class that this book is about a class
who goes on a field trip just like they did yesterday but this
class went to go see apples instead of pumpkins. While
reading, punctuation in the book will be covered so the
students will have to say which punctuation is needed.
bb.
After the book, we can compare and contrast our
field trip and their field trip.
bc.
Exploration time: students will go to the classroom
library and pick a book and find a question, a period, and
exclamation point in their book. They can write their three
sentences on a piece of paper.
bd.
Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.R if
there is time
be.
Week 2- Day 5: Read the book A Turkey for
Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting.
bf. Discuss- what changes when its getting close to
Thanksgiving? What does Thanksgiving mean to you?
Where and who comes to Thanksgiving? What do you have
to eat at Thanksgiving dinner?
bg.
Turkey Craft- Students will create a turkey with
construction paper and write 5 things that they are
thankful for.
bh.
Independent experience-20 minutes of D.E.A.Rstudents are encouraged to think about why they should
be thankful for books.
bi. This unit revolving around the big book will end here but
students will continue to do more fall/ Thanksgiving
activities most likely revolving around another big book.