Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title:

Reading and Writing High-Frequency Words and the “Am” Word Family

Objectives:

1. Students will be able to identify high frequency words.

2. Students will be able to use high frequency words in writing.

State Standards:

 Standard 3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
o 3.3 Read regularly spelled single-syllable words
o 3.5 Read common high-frequency words.

Context:

This kindergarten reading and writing lesson targets high-frequency words such as “the”, “to”,
and “a” as well as the “am” word family. It’s important to teach these skills in a way that provides
students with multiple examples and lots of practice to fully grasp the concepts and understanding. As
students are learning to build sentences these skills will be vital in their success which is why I’m
teaching this lesson. Students previously learned other high-frequency words as well as other word
families, so this concept is not new. I will be teaching these high-frequency and family words in a similar
manner to make sure the students are able to connect the lessons visually. At the end of the unit, I’ll
have my students put what we’ve learned together to demonstrate their understanding. Everything
kindergarteners learn are vital to their educational growth and are the building blocks of learning as a
whole. That’s why I feel it’s important to give students as many opportunities as possible to learn and
practice material in different ways and I think this lesson is perfect for that.

Data:

I will separate the students based on their independence level. I will use my previous knowledge
of the students’ ability to stay on task, understand directions, and the amount of help needed to
complete tasks. This will all be determined by my observations in the classroom and how well students
have previously done with classroom activities. I will start by dividing the class into three groups (during
planning; not in front of the students) one of which will be the student who need the least amount of
help and pick up quickly, the second group will be students who usually need some help and the third
group will be students who need the most help and are dependent on one-on-one instruction to
understand/work through activities. Once I’ve done that I will take one student from each group and
create three new equal groups. This will ensure that the students will work together and help each other
to complete the work.

While completing the lesson there will be three separate opportunities for me to collect data on
the students’ understanding. During the teacher-centered lesson the students will complete a small
booklet that will contain a “Box-A-Word” sheet, a word scramble, and a word search. The collaborative
center will have the kids work together on a word wall that I will look at after the activity and then the
independent computer activity will have the students go onto fun4thebrain.com and play the snowball
fight sight word game. We will discuss the game during the closing part of the lesson which is where I
will collect data on their understanding.

Materials:

Part of Materials Needed

Lesson
 Whiteboard
Introduction  Markers

 Pencil
Teacher  Activity packet (pictures under teacher-led section) file:///C:/Users/Alaina
Directed %20D'Agostino/Pictures/Spelling%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf
Small Group

 One large sheet of paper

 Set of “am” words and a set of high-frequency words (under collaborative
Collaborative section) file:///C:/Users/Alaina%20D'Agostino/Pictures/Spelling%20Lesson
%20Plan.pdf

 Glue sticks
 Markers
 Laptops to access game:
Independent https://www.fun4thebrain.com/g/reading/snowballfight/
Digital  Headphones
Content
Closure  Collaborative group papers
 Markers
 Take home folders

Procedures:

Introduction: (10 minutes)

For the introduction to this lesson I will have the students sit on the carpet in front of the whiteboard (or
smartboard depending on the classroom). I will then write two example sentences on the board. The
first one will say, “I like to go to the beach and find seashells” and the second will say, “I am excited to
see a monkey at the zoo!”. I will read each sentence out loud then have the students read them with me.
Next I will ask a volunteer to come up to the board and underline the word “the”, then another
volunteer to underline the word “am”, and so on for each of the words the lesson is on (the, to, and, a ,
am). Once that’s done I will explain what we will be doing for each station then separate the kids into
three groups. After everyone is in their group I’ll assign each group a number and dismiss each group
one by one to grab a pencil and go to their assigned station.

Teacher Directed Small Group: (10 minutes)

For this part of the lesson, I will give each of the students a small packet with three different activities.
(These papers will not be fully completed by the end of the 10 minutes so I will have the students take
the packet home and finish it for homework.) The first activity is the “Box-A-Word”. I’ll demonstrate first
how the assignment is done by filling in one of the boxes and then work through another one with the
students. I’ll give them a minute to fill out one on their own and then we’ll move onto the next paper.
The second activity will be a word scramble. This paper I will work through the first few words with the
students so that they can get the hang of it then allow them to do a couple on their own. The final
activity with be a word search that we will work on together. I’ll go over what each of the words we’re
trying to find are and then let the students find as many words as they can. I will circle the words found
on my paper and let the students take their sheet home blank for homework. By doing the work with the
students and then letting them finish at home, they get a chance to ask me questions as they think of
them, follow along with examples, and gives them a chance to practice in different environments. When
the ten minutes are up I’ll have the students take their pencils and packets back to their desks before
moving to the next station.

Collaborative: (10 minutes)

For this part I will have three large pieces of paper that are divided into four sections. There will be three
different stacks labeled for each group along with a container of markers and glue sticks. The sections on
the paper will be titled “Sight Words”, “My -am words” “Your -am Words”, and “Sight Sentences”. I will
give each group a set of cut out “am” and sight words and a few colored markers and will have the
students work together to place them in the correct boxes. Each student will take one turn gluing on a
piece to the paper. I will give a five-minute warning to make sure they have enough time to get
everything on the paper. After the first five minutes the students will then each take turns writing down
their own “am” words in the “Your -am Words” box and one sentence using a sight word in the “Sight
Sentences” box. Once the ten minutes are over each group will move their paper to the carpet to dry
and get out of the way for the next group. The last group will and me their paper and I will hang it up
with the other two. This part of the lesson will help the students work on teamwork as well as
responsibility since each student is responsible for doing something with the paper.
Independent Digital: (10 minutes)

Before class I will have the tab open for the game on their laptops, so they won’t have to find it
themselves. Each student will need their laptops and headphones to play the game. Once at their seats
they will pull up the game and play for the ten minutes. The game is called “Snowball Fight” on Fun 4 the
Brain. To play, a polar bear will appear on the screen and say a word. Then the student has to pick the
word out of three words listed on piles of snow. If the correct word is clicked a polar bear will appear
from behind the snow pile and will get hit with a snowball. If the wrong word is picked a snowball will be
thrown at the screen letting the child know they got it wrong. There is a thermometer on the side of the
screen letting the student know how much life they have left. The temperature will decrease as the
student gets the answers wrong. There’s also an option to have the word repeated. Once the ten
minutes are up I’ll tell the students at this station to put their laptops and headphones away before
moving to the next station. If it’s the last group, I will have them put their belongings away before
coming to the carpet. (A cool feature about this site is that it gives you an option to share it to your
google classroom) https://www.fun4thebrain.com/g/reading/snowballfight/

Closing: (10 minutes)

Once the final ten minutes are up I will have everyone come back together on the carpet to go over the
lesson. First, we will take a look at each group’s paper from the collaborative assignment. I’ll hang each
up on the board and go over them by section. I’ll ask the students as a group if they think each piece of
paper was glued in the correct spot and if not, I’ll take a market and write the word in the correct spot.
Then I will look at the words and sentences the children came up with and provide positive feedback and
constructive criticism to the ones that need it. Second, we’ll discuss the game the kids played. I’ll ask if
they liked it to see if I’ll use it again in the future then write down their feedback on the game. Next, I’ll
ask them what words they saw in the game and to make a sentence out of the words they saw when I
call on them. The last thing that we’ll go over is the homework. I’ll make sure they all know that what
they didn’t finish in the packet will be homework and have them get up and put them in their take home
folders.

Rationale:
Lesson Packet and word examples: file:///C:/Users/Alaina%20D'Agostino/Pictures/Spelling%20Lesson
%20Plan.pdf

I chose to use these worksheets because they perfectly aligned with the state standards I found about
single syllable and high-frequency words. These worksheets also give the students multiple ways to
practice the same skills, one of which is a fun activity (word search) that the students don’t normally do.
I wanted to use these worksheets because they had another matching activity that I could use as one of
the other stations. I got the lesson plan and activities from https://www.educationworld.com/ which is a
website that provides lesson plans for all subjects and grade levels. Even though this is not an app or
game for students, for some of the LORI evaluations, the website would score mostly in the 4’s and 5’s
specifically in the content area. The website allows you to choose what specific age group and subject
you want to look for and whether or not you want your results to show tech integrated lesson plans.

Snowball Fight Game: https://www.fun4thebrain.com/g/reading/snowballfight/

I chose this game because I found that it was easy to access and to understand. I looked for a lot of
games and websites that would fit for this activity but they all either needed a membership or were hard
to navigate. The game also fits well with the standards the lesson is planned around as well as others
under the same section of standards. It helps build not just reading skills but auditory as well, helping
students ability to hear a word and identify it in written form. In a LORI evaluation this game would score
mostly 4’s and 3’s. It is interactive, easy to navigate, visually appealing, and age appropriate, but doesn’t
take in user feedback other than the game functions themselves.