THEMATIC
UNIT
EDUC
3223 - Methods
of Teaching Language Arts
April
9, 2010
Topic: Spiders
Grade: Third Grade
Overview
This unit is on
the topic of spiders and integrates language arts, science, math, and the arts
as cross-curricular content areas. Most of the time, students will work in
cooperative groups while working on a universal class project. The lessons are
broken up according to the content areas.
Objectives
Students will be
able to respond to questions that ask for written responses about the topic of
spiders in general and from stories read.
Students will be
able to create a spider web by designing the web with the foundation of angles
and circles, and they will create data analysis graphs based on their views of
spiders.
Students will be
able to explore the life of spiders through examining fiction and nonfiction
books and handouts.
Students will be
able to perform a reader’s theater to the poem “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” with
finger puppet tools.
Sunshine State
Standards
LA.3.1.7.6 - The student will identify
themes or topics across a variety of fiction and nonfiction selections.
LA.3.1.7.7 - The student will compare
and contrast elements, settings, characters, and problems in two texts.
LA.3.2.1.5 - The student will respond
to, discuss, and reflect on various literary selections (e.g., poetry, prose,
fiction, nonfiction), connecting text to self (personal connection), text to
world (social connection), text to text (comparison among multiple texts).
LA.3.4.1.1 - The student will write
narratives based on real or imagined events or observations that include
characters, setting, plot, sensory details, and a logical sequence of events.
MA.3.G.3.1 - Describe, analyze, compare, and
classify two-dimensional shapes using sides and angles - including acute,
obtuse, and right angles - and connect these ideas to the definition of shapes.
MA.3.S.7.1 - Construct and analyze frequency
tables, bar graphs, pictographs, and line plots from data, including data
collected through observations, surveys, and experiments.
SC.3.L.15.1 - Classify animals into major
groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, arthropods, vertebrates and
invertebrates, those having live births and those which lay eggs) according to
their physical characteristics and behaviors.
TH.A.1.2 - The student acts by developing,
communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisation and formal or
informal productions (1. creates imagined characters, relationships, and
environments, using basic acting skills [e.g., breath control, diction,
concentration, and control of isolated body parts]).
VA.A.1.2 - The student understands and
applies media, techniques, and processes (1. uses and organizes
two-dimensional and three dimensional media, techniques, tools, and processes
to produce works of art that are derived from personal experience, observation,
or imagination).
Accommodations
·
Extra time will be given for those who need it.
·
The classroom will be made spacious.
·
Specific handouts will be labeled for easy use.
·
Help will be provided when needed.
·
Lessons will be modeled before students begin
the lessons.
·
There will be special handouts for ESE and ELL
students.
Language
arts
After the Read-Aloud for The Spider and the
Fly by Mary Howitt and Tony DiTerlizzi, the students will write a paragraph
detailing how they would react if they were a fly and a spider was trying to
lure them into its trap.
After the Read-Aloud for Miss Spider’s Wedding
by David Kirk, the students will pick up where the book ended and write about
what might happen next in the story—what might the characters Holly, Spider,
May and Ike do for a next adventure?
Students will compare or contrast the traditional
poem of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” with the book of the same title by Iza Trapani.
After the Read-Aloud for Spider by Brian
Roberts and Elizabeth Austin, students will fill out a worksheet which asks to
write about something they learned about spiders.
Mathematics
Students will create spider webs by
first learning about angles and circles. After learning
about obtuse angles, acute angles, right angles,
and circles, they will draw a circle on graphing paper and include those angles
into the spider web.
Yes | 0 0 0 0
No | 0 0 0 0 Students will take a survey on whether
they like or dislike spiders. They will tally the results and make a graph
representing the responses and then they will review the results as a class,
viewing all of the responses.
Science
After the Read-Aloud book titled Spiders
by Jane Dillinger, students will be given a KWL chart and will fill it out
about what they know or want to know about spiders. Then there will be handouts
that are given out which gives information that the teacher will read to the
class. Students will fill out a diagram of the spiders’ body (for ELLs, there
will be a copy that is on the board that is already labeled). Students will be
quizzed on select information about poisonous spiders or spiders in general, in
the format of reading comprehension quizzes (where they read passages and then
are quizzed afterwards). For ESE and ELLs, there’s a special handout that tells
how many legs spiders have, how many eyes, where they live (on webs), what they
eat, and how they lay eggs. There’s a spider life-cycle handout that students
can read to gain knowledge about the spiders’ life cycle of laying eggs and
hatching.
The Arts
Students will do a reader’s theater in which
their groups will write their own versions of the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” poem and
include a spider, the sun, and the water in the drama, and they will use a
spider, sun, and water character template as the finger puppets. They can use
the original poem as a reference tool.
Students will create webs by taking a string of
yarn in paint and string it on art paper. Students can then apply black ink on
one of their thumbs, make a thumbprint on the art paper, and use a black marker
to draw legs.
Evaluation/Assessment
Evaluation will consist of the written works, worksheets,
finger puppet performances, and creations of the artwork.
Resources
For Language Arts:
Book: The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt
and Tony DiTerlizzi
Book: Miss Spider’s Wedding by David Kirk
Book: copies of Spider by Brian Roberts and
Elizabeth Austin per student
Handout: “What You Have Learned about Spiders”
Book: The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
Poem: The Itsy
Bitsy Spider
Paper and writing utensils
For Math:
Graphing paper and writing utensils
For Science:
Book: Spiders by Jane Dillinger
KWL chart spider handout
Poisonous
Spiders! reading comprehension quiz
Spiders
reading comprehension quiz
Spiders
handout (for ESE and ELLs)
Spider life-cycle handout
Spider label handouts (1 already labeled and one
blank)
For the Arts:
“Itsy Bitsy Spider” finger puppets templates
Copy of the poem “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” for
reference
Paint and art paper and painting utensils
Ink pad with black ink
Black markers
String of Yarn
Annotated Bibliography
- ABC Teach:
Handout and quiz
KWL Chart - http://www.abcteach.com/free/k/kwl_spiders.pdf
Poisonous
Spiders! quiz http://www.abcteach.com/free/r/rc_spiders_poisonous_elemupper.pdf
- A to Z Teacher Stuff:
Handouts and worksheet/quizzes
The Itsy Bitsy Spider” poem http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pdf.htm?spiders_ItsyBitsySpider.pdf
Spiders Reading Comprehension quiz http://www.abcteach.com/free/f/free_spiders_elem.pdf
Handout for ESE and ELLs (my title for it) http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pdf.htm?spiders_sentences.pdf
- Dallinger, J. (1981). Spiders. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company.
A nonfiction book about spiders.
- DiTerlizzi, T. and Howitt, M. (2002). The Spider and the Fly. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
A tale about a spider and fly, based on Mary Howitt’s
poem.
- DLTK-Teach:
This is where
I came up with the idea for the finger puppet activity and the thumbprint/web
creation.
The finger puppet templates à http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/spider/fingerpuppets.html
Spider Web craft - http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/spider/spider_web_craft.htm
- KidZone:
Handouts and worksheets
Spider Label
Handouts - http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/ws11.htm
- http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/ws3.htm
Spider life-cycle handout - http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/ws2.htm
“What You Have Learned about
Spiders”
http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/ws9.htm
- Kirk, D. (1995). Miss Spider’s Wedding. New York: Scholastic Press.
A story about a spider who finds her mate despite her
friends’ dislikes.
- Roberts, B and Austin, E. Spiders. www.readinga-z.com: Learning A-Z, Inc.
A nonfiction
book about spiders.
- SEDL- http://www.sedl.org/scimath/pasopartners/spiders/lesson1a1.html
This is
where I came up with the data graphing idea for the like/dislike spiders
activity.
- Trapani, I. (1993). The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Massachusetts: Charlesbridge.
A retold version of the poem by the same name.