First Day Jitters

by Julie Danneberg
Illustrated by Judy Love

Dannesberg, Julie. First Day Jitters. Paw Prints, 2009.

Lexile Level: 520L

Grade Range: 2-3

Domain: Affective

Summary:
It is the first day of school and our character, Sarah, does not want to go. She hides under her covers, under the breakfast table, hides her head in her coat as her father coaxes her to go to school. The ending has a surprising and rather funny twist. It is a good way to illustrate to students that everyone, including adults, can be nervous on the first day of school. This is a excellent book to use on the first day of school for 1st or 2nd graders.

Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1

Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3

Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Goal
Students will realize everyone is nervous on the first day of school.
Students will identify what makes them nervous.

Objectives
Students will share what make them nervous on the first day of school.
Students will identify ways to make themselves feel better when nervous by participating in a group brainstorm.

Outcome
Students will write about their first day jitters
Students will draw a picture to go along with their writing

Procedure
Students will listen as the story is read aloud to the class. Explain that everyone feels nervous, even adults on the first day of school. Students will be asked to share what makes them nervous about the first day of school. Class will engage in a group brainstorm as the students think of what made them feel better if they were nervous about the first day of school. Students will then write 2-4 sentences about what makes them nervous on the first day of school and what they did to feel better. Students will illustrate their work.

Dinosaurs Before Dark & Dinosaurs

by Mary Pope Osborne                           by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne



For this lesson, these two books will be used.

Osborne, Mary Pope. Dinosaurs Before Dark. Random House, 1992

Osborne, Will, Mary Pope Osborne. Dinosaurs. Random House, 2000.
Summary

This is the first book in the Magic Tree house series. Jack and Annie find a treehouse in the woods. Inside the treehouse are magical books. Jack loves to read so he immediately grabs one about dinosaurs, As soon as he opens the book, he and Annie are magically transported back to the age of the dinosaurs. Jack and Annie encounter many different types of dinosaurs. While Jack is interested in studying the facts about dinosaurs, Annie is developing a personal connection to a dinosaur, a pterodactyl to be specific. As Jack and Annie return to the treehouse, Jack realized he left his backpack behind. When he goes to retrieve it, he runs into a T-Rex. Annie send her new friend the pterodactyl to save him. Jack is able to safely get back to the treehouse and he and Annie are magically returned to their world. Jack and Annie make a pact to keep the treehouse and their journey to themselves.


Lexile Level: 240
Grades: 2nd - 3rd
Domain: Cognitive

Standard

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.5
Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.9
Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

Goal
Student will learn about a different time period or historical events.

Objectives
After reading Dinosaurs After Dark and the fact tracker that accompanies this book, students will list three facts about dinosaurs.
Students will choose one historical event that they would like to visit and research that event.
Students will be able to identify three facts about the historical event they choose.

Outcome
Students will draw pictures about their visit to their chosen historical event, and include the three facts they identified.

Additional information:
29 Magic Treehouse
28 Merlin Missions
38 research guides or Fact Trackers as they are now called.

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