Goals:
(1) Students will explain and describe new concepts and
information in their own words;
(2) Students will increase oral and written vocabulary
by listening and discussing;
(3) Students will discuss the effects of an authors
choice of nouns, verbs, and modifiers; and
(4) Students will use oral communication to identify,
organize, and analyze information.
Materials:
Text: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi
Barrett
Word Web sheets
Blank pages from Kid Pix Weather software for the students
weather dictionaries.
Transparency of the first page of the text with weather-related
terms and copies of the text for each small group.
Teacher Input:
(1) The teacher will read Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs by Barrett.
(2) Review three parts of speech: verbs, nouns, and adjectives
or modifiers.
(3) Using a transparency of one of the first passages
about Chewandswallow the class will identify any weather-related words.
They will define them in their own words and add them to their copy of
My Book of Weather Words.
(4) The teacher, with input from the students, will sort
and place the words identified on the correct web
indicating noun, verb, or
adjective (modifier).
Possible weather terms from the text:
rained rain snowed snow
blew wind storms weather
prediction shower sprinkled northwest
drizzle heavy clearing gradual
west occasional tornado fog
hurricane downpour flooded drifts
Activities:
(1) The students will be divided into three groups and
work cooperatively to:
a. continue to locate and identify
the weather-related words in the text;
b. define the weather-related terms
in their own words; and
c. illustrate the weather-related
terms.
(2) Groups who finish early may use Kid
Pix software to add the new terms to My Book of Weather
Words.
(3) The teacher will move from group to group to monitor
progress of the students.
Homework:
Any student who does not complete their illustrations
will finish the assignment for homework.