Your Name: Reka Szamosi

Intended Grade Level: First

Type of Lesson (curricular area): Language Arts - BOOK
grade
Title of this Lesson: Whistle For The Train Activity
Title of Book; Author(s); Publisher; Publication Date (copyright)
The title of the book is Whistle For The Train written by Golden MacDonald and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard.
This book was published by Doubleday & Company, Inc in 1956.
Brief Description of Lesson:
In this lesson, the teacher will read this book to the students and have students participate by blowing their
whistle or kazoo and stomping their feet or clapping. I think this lesson will benefit students because it will show
them how to incorporate sounds and beats into storytelling, therefore combining language arts with music.
Learning Objective(s): (What will the class learn/experience from this activity? What will they be able to do by the
end of this activity?)
The class will learn how to follow along in the book, learn how to follow a beat, and will experience sounds
during storytelling. By the end of this activity, students will be able to listen and respond when asked and learn
how to follow a beat when instructed.
Language Arts Standards this lesson will address: One language art standard that applies to this lesson would
have to do with vocabulary acquisition and use. The standard for first grade students would be to “ b. Define
words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with
stripes).” Another standard would be from range reading level and level of text complexity, which states that
students will be able to, “10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding”.
Another first grade standard relates to key ideas and details which is to “1. Ask and answer questions about key
details in a text”.
Materials/Resources/Equipment Needed:
● One copy of Whistle For The Train for the teacher
● Whistles and kazoos for each student
● An area in the classroom where students can sit on the ground in a group
Teaching Steps (Instructions, diagrams, details, teacher directions.)
Ask yourself, “Could anyone teach this lesson using this lesson plan?” Details are your friend!
● Think about how the atmosphere for the class is today - If the students are misbehaving or hyper, have
them use their kazoos, or you as the teacher could just blow a whistle. If the students are listening and
behaving, tell them they have a choice between the kazoos or the whistles.
● Tell students to bring their whistles or kazoos from their desks to the reading area.
● As the teacher, just bring the book and your chair to the reading area.
● Gather all the students to the reading area where you will sit in a chair and the students will sit on the
ground.
● First, begin by giving instructions to students.
● Tell the students that every time the book says the words “blows its whistle”, they will blow their whistle
or kazoo.
● Then tell them that every time the book says “clickety-clack” they can either stomp their feet or clap
their hands to the beat. Have them practice this a couple of times.
● Make sure you tell them that if they use their instrument incorrectly and not when instructed, they will
have to put their instrument into a basket and will no longer be able to use it for this activity.
● Start reading the book and for the first few times point to the students when they have to blow their
whistle or kazoo and then point to them when they have to stomp or clap.
● When you are done reading the book, you can have a class discussion in the reading area with the
students.
● At this time you can ask students questions like, “What was your favorite part of the book?”, “Was it
challenging to add sounds when reading?”, “Which did they like better, blowing their whistle, blowing
their kazoo, stomping or clapping?”.