Picture Book Lesson

Picture Book Lesson—Going on a shape hunt

Taught to my Kindergarten class

Book:  When a Line Bends….A Shape Begins

Author:  Rhonda Growler Greene

GPS  MKG1.  Students will correctly name simple two and three dimensional figures, and recognize them in the environment.

I taught a lesson on shapes.  In days previous to this lesson, we had talked about shapes, played with shape pattern blocks, played shape games on the interactive board, and completed some worksheets together.  The vocabulary words in this book that I pre-taught are listed below.  I drew each shape on the board, then we as a class came up with easy ways to describe that shape that would help us understand the shape.

To begin the lesson, I introduced the book and read it aloud.  After I read the book, we briefly talked about each of the vocabulary words again.  I had students raise their hand and define one of the shapes to the class.  After this, I told students we were going on a shape hunt.  They were very eager to see what this was about.  (Beforehand, I had placed pattern blocks all around the room in different places. )

I dismissed them a few at a time to quietly leave the carpet and go look for a shape….reminding them that they need to be able to identify the shape they choose.  After choosing their shape, they brought it back to the carpet and each child got a turn to hold up the shape and tell us the name. 

Next, I had the students turn the pattern blocks in to me.  This time, I told them they would be hunting for an object  around our classroom that was one of the shapes we talked about.  I again dismissed them from the carpet to quietly go find a shape.  They came back to the carpet once again with the classroom items and we discussed these.  Then, the students put up their items and once again came back to the carpet.  This led us into a discussion about how shapes can be found all around our world.  We also looked back in the book at each shape’s page and pointed out some items in the book.

Vocabulary- line, circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, oval,star, heart,crescent, ocatagon

My Reflections:

Pre-teaching the vocabulary was essential to my students being able to complete this lesson.  To be able to find and name the shapes, they had to understand the vocabulary.

This book was an excellent choice for the content topic.  This book was very engaging because it presenting  a math concept in a very fun way.  The pictures in this book were bright and colorful.  After I read a page, then showed students the picture, they would point out items that were the shape we were talking about all over the page.  This book helped build their excitement for the shape hunt activity.

Looking back on this lesson, I may change how I did the actual shape hunt.  First, if I’m going to stay in my classroom, I will only let maybe 4-5 students go find a shape and keep the others engaged on the carpet until their turn instead of letting the whole class go at once.

Another idea that I would like to try is to take our shape hunt outside of the classroom…..maybe go on a shape hunt outside, or around the school building.  It would be neat to see what items the students came up with. 

In my Kindergarten classroom, I do have some diverse learning needs.  I helped address their needs in this activity by providin  the vocabulary word and a picture when I pre-taught the vocabulary.  I have several students that need visual cues.