Student’s name: Jaclyn Fulk

Cooperating teacher and school: Mrs. McDorman, Cub Run Elementary

Date and time lesson is to be presented: 11/7/18
Date written plan is submitted to practicum teacher: 11/6/18

A. Title: ​Shapes in the World Around You

B. Context of Activity​:​ Before this lesson Mrs. McDorman was teaching the
students about pumpkins, since it was Halloween. A few weeks ago she and I
looked at her schedule of topics and decided on this one for me to teach. I chose
the Shapes lesson because I felt like it wasn’t going to be overwhelming as my first
official lesson to young children. Mrs. McDorman is also teaching colors at the
same time as she is teaching shapes.

C. Learning Objectives – Know/Understand/Do:​ At the end of the lesson, what do

you want the students to know? These are the facts, vocabulary, skills the students
will learn. What do you want them to understand at the end of this lesson? These
are the concepts, feelings, the “big picture” things related to your topic. What do
you want them to do? These are the measurable and observable things the students
will perform so you know they know/understand.

Understand Know Do Assess

There are 4 basic Name the 4 basic We are going to I will visually
shapes: shapes. A circle is sing a shape song assess that
1. Circle round with no and look at everyone is
2. Square sides. A square pictures of the following along
3. Rectangle has 4 sides that different shapes. and singing our
4. Triangle are all the same song.
length. A
rectangle has 4
sides ( 2 that are
shorter and 2 that
are longer) and a
triangle has 3
sides.

These 4 basic These shapes We will look at The students will

shapes can be surround us and some basic have a set time to
found all around can found all over household items find something in
you. the place. that are in these the classroom that
shapes is one of the
shapes we have
discussed. We
will bring it back
 to rug and then
we will share. The
students will then
sort themselves
by their shape.

Understand – what are the broad
generalizations the students
should begin to develop? (These
are typically difficult to assess in
one lesson.)
Know – what are the facts, rules,
specific data the students will
gain through this lesson? (These
―knows‖ must be assessed in
your lesson.)
Do – what are the specific
thinking behaviors students will
be able to do through this lesson?
(These will also be assessed in
your lesson.)

D. Assessing Learning: ​See chart above

E. Related Virginia Standards of Learning:​ ​ This lesson satisfies the VA

Mathematics Foundation Block 4 Geometry and Foundation Block 6 patterns and
relationships. The block 4 is related to shapes specifically and the block 6 has to do
with sorting. It also could be used as part of the VA Literacy Foundation Block 1
oral expression because we have the song that goes along with our lesson which
the kids will participate in singing.

F. Materials Needed:​ My song on a poster board provided by me. I will also bring
some household items:
Square: book, napkin, coaster, pizza box
Circle: cup, coffee container, bowl
Rectangle: picture frame, paper towel
Triangle: Napkin folded diagonal, piece of bread cut diagonal

G. Procedures:
1. Ok friends today we are going to learn a new song about shapes. Now I know
many of you already know some of your shapes so I’m really hoping you can help
me sing loud and proud so that all of our friends can be shape experts.
2. I will display the shapes song poster I have created. The shapes song is sung to
the tune of Are you Sleeping and goes like this:
Terry Triangle, Terry Triangle Look at me, Look at me. Count my sides,
Count my sides, There are three, there are three.
Sammy Square, Sammy Square that’s my name, that’s my name, I have
four side, I have four sides, they’re all the same, they’re all the same.
 Robbie Rectangle, Robbie Rectangle, I have four sides, I have four sides
two are long two are long, two are short, two are short.
Cindy Circle, Cindy Circle Just one line, just one line, make it round,
make it round, that is fine, that is fine.
3. Depending on how well the students are singing and comprehending the song, we
may sing it again.
4. “Friends, these 4 shapes can be found all over the place. Next time you are at the
store or taking a car ride with your adult, look around and see how many of these shapes
you can find. You can find a bunch of them in your house.”
5. “I brought some things from home that you might have in your house too and I’m
wondering if you can help me figure out what shape they are.” We will go through the
bag of items I listed above and brought from home.
6. “Ok, boys and girls now it is your turn!” I am going to let you find one thing from your
classroom to bring back to the rug so that we can share it with everyone. You should be
finding something that you can carry and something that looks like a circle, square,
rectangle or triangle. You may not get items from Mrs. McDorman or Mrs. Morris’ desk
or the counter where Mrs. McDorman has your mailboxes.” Model for the students that
they can use something from their center bins but they only need to bring one item from
the bin, not the entire bin.
7. “I am going to let you find your item by table and the rest of us are going to count out
loud to 25. By the time we get to 25, you should have your item and be back on the rug.”
8. The first table is Malaz’s table so, Malaz, Giovanni, Lena, Mia, Bryson. Next is
Humam’s table so, Humam, Eli, Adrian, Lilly, Addison, and Winston. Then Karmine’s
table so, Karmine, Raul, Shadday, Kale, Amy and Mehely.
10. “Great job, now I want you to sort yourself, so hang tight and listen for directions.” If
you have a square in your hand, I want you to walk to the bathroom and stand. If you
have a rectangle in your hand I want you to walk behind the sofa chair and stand. If you
have a triangle I want you to walk beside Mrs. McDorman’s desk and stand. And if you
have a circle I want you to stand beside the morning message.”
11. “Awesome, now look around at the friends that are with you, does everyone in your
group have the same shape? If not maybe you can help them figure out what group they
should be in? We have now sorted ourselves boys and girls by the shape you found.”
12. “Ok everyone come back to your spot. We are going to go by table to put our item
away now and then come back to your seat.” Blue table, green table and yellow table.
13. “Wow, there are shapes all around us, all the time, so try to be on the lookout for
them and see just how many you can find!”

H. Modifications for Students with Special Needs: ​There is a student in the

classroom who gets easily over stimulated and I am concerned that this lesson may
be a little too much activity for her. I plan to accommodate her by asking Mrs.
Morris or Mrs. McDorman or myself to hold her hand and go find her object with
her. Some of the students understand Spanish a little better than English so I
included pictures on my poster of the shapes song and have brought household
items so they can visually get an idea of what we are looking for.
 I. What Could Go Wrong? ​The part where the students go to find their object could
turn into more play and lesson finding an object. I would then just re-direct those
particular students back to their seat. Some students could be a little lost in what
they are supposed to do. Again one of the teachers could help give them some
additional clues for them to find their object.

A hard copy of your word-processed reflection is due no later than one week after
you’ve taught the lesson.

Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the
questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use
specific examples to support your insights.

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the
changes and explain why you made them.
The lesson took a little longer than I anticipated it would. Going over each item I brought
and talking about its shape took the kids a little longer than I thought it would. Most of
them have a pretty good concept of their shapes, so I thought we would zoom right
through the lesson but we didn’t. We ran over time a little bit and had to leave the
classroom for PE and then lunch. After we returned to classroom we picked right back up
with the lesson and I think it worked out well that the students had a mental break
because they were much more engaged when they came back.
Also, we did “sing” the shapes song through twice but I quickly realized that it was too
much for them to learn all at once, so I lowered my expectations and the second time we
kind of talked it through and I tried to really emphasize the important parts, like the
number of sides and how the shapes are formed.

II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on
student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can
you offer that your conclusions are valid?
Based off of my assessment I would say the majority of the class can identify their
shapes, or at least a few of them. They at least learned one that they were confident going
and finding in the room because each student was able to go find their shape and then
bring it back to the rug. We went around the room and each student shared with the group
the shape they had chosen. A few did need help but for at least two of them I feel like it
was more of a language barrier than them not knowing the content as they do not speak
much English.

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice
in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.
I quickly realized that my song was too much for the kids to learn in one day. My
cooperating teacher really liked it and thought it was a cute song but agreed it was a little
too much for the kids to learn at once. She suggested if I were teaching this lesson to start
the song little by little, so one day teach the Terry Triangle part then teach the next, and
so on. I think breaking the song down would really help the students. Also maybe I would
try to incorporate the song on a smart board and make a fun video with dance moves so
the kids could get up and move with hand motions while they learn the song.

IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you
were the classroom teacher?
I would continue to work on the shapes and then maybe talk to the students about the 3D
shapes, such as a circle versus a cylinder. The learning blocks do say to incorporate the
3D shapes into the lesson, so I would start to slowly incorporate those into my lesson. As
we continued to talk about the shapes and colors I would slowly start adding in the 3D
shapes one at a time and explain how they are related.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about young children as learners?
Teaching this lesson was a valuable lesson for me that young learners need to be help and
moving and engaged. Having them active is the best way to keep their attention. My
cooperating teacher has told me that they should sit for no longer than fifteen minutes and
I could tell during the end of my lesson they were starting to get antsy. Luckily we got
interrupted by PE and then when they came back we were up and moving. Having a
mental break I think was good to help their brains re-focus. My cooperating teacher and I
discussed that it’s ok to put your lesson on hold and let them get up and do a dance to
help them re-focus because you can’t expect them to sit for long periods of time and keep
their attention. Also when I originally told my plan to my cooperating teacher she
cautioned me about letting the students just get up and run around to look for an object
because that has the potential to turn into chaos quickly. She suggested I re-consider that
aspect of my plan and make it a little more clear for the students or they could end up
playing with each other and running around instead of finding a shape. That’s when I
decided to dismiss them in small groups and count out loud so they knew they had until
25 to find their shape. This was an important lesson for me because young learners can
often get veered off track so by breaking them into smaller groups and setting a clear time
goal they stayed focused.

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about teaching?
I think the most important thing I learned about teaching this lesson was that sometimes
keeping it simple and relatable is the best route. This lesson didn’t take me long to come
up with and it didn’t require a bunch of fancy props, etc but it covered the standards and
the kids learned and had a good time looking for shapes in their classroom. Sometimes,
when creating a lesson we feel like we have to incorporate new technology or make our
plan something elaborate. While I do think there is a time and a place for those type of
lessons, this’s lesson reinforced for me that not all of them have to be. Sometimes, the
lessons that come to you first and are simple are also a good way for the students to learn.

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about yourself
I am an organized person and that really helps when it comes to having lessons planned
out and prepared. I enjoy having things in an organized fashion to make the day go
smoother and it certainly helps to have things prepared and ready ahead of time because
if you are scrambling around trying to get stuff in order before your lesson you are
wasting valuable teaching time that you could be using for teaching and spending with
your students.