Lesson plan Grade 1 English Language Arts
Havershell School's Courtyard Sprinkler: A Grade 1 Opinion Lesson
During a dry stretch, first graders decide whether the school should shut off its courtyard sprinkler on rainy mornings and write an opinion with one reason.
Objectives
- Students will state an opinion about turning off a school sprinkler on rainy days.
- Students will supply one reason for that opinion using the word because.
- Students will explain why a dry stretch makes a town choose between water uses.
Vocabulary
Key words: opinion, reason, sprinkler, timer, dry spell
Teacher overview
Havershell School is an invented school with a small courtyard garden watered by a sprinkler on a timer that runs every morning, rain or shine. In this lesson the town of Havershell is partway through a long dry stretch and has asked homes and schools to use less water, so the class takes up one narrow question they can actually answer: should the sprinkler timer be shut off on mornings when rain is coming? The misconception this lesson addresses is the belief, common at this age, that the town's water cannot run out because the tap has never failed, which leads students to conclude that skipping one morning of sprinkling changes nothing.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Fill a small pitcher and set two empty cups beside it. Tell students the pitcher is all the water for the morning, then pour most of it into the first cup and ask what is left for the second. Ask one question and take a few answers: when there is only so much, who decides where it goes?
Context read-aloud (8 min): Read this aloud twice. "Havershell has had no rain for six weeks. The grass is brown. The town asked every home and every school to use less water this month. At Havershell School, a sprinkler waters the courtyard garden every morning at seven. The timer runs even when rain is coming later that day. Mr. Odell, the custodian, can turn the timer off the night before. The class has been asked what the school should do." Pause after each sentence on the second reading and ask students to repeat the sentence that names the problem.
Turn and talk (7 min): Partners take turns answering the question out loud, using the frame "I think the school should _____ because _____." Listen for reasons that use the read-aloud, and pull two contrasting examples to share with the whole group without naming which one you prefer.
Modeled opinion (5 min): On chart paper, write an opinion, a reason, and a closing line as three separate sentences, marking each one with its label. Think aloud about why the reason has to say something about water rather than only repeating the opinion in new words.
Independent writing (10 min): Students complete the opinion page. Circulate and ask any student whose reason repeats the opinion to answer one follow-up question aloud: what would happen to the town's water if the sprinkler ran all month?
Share and exit check (5 min): Four students read their opinion and reason aloud. Then ask the whole class the exit question: can a town run out of water? Students answer yes or no on a slip of paper and add one word telling why. Sort the slips before the next writing block, and reread the context passage with any group that answered no.
Student Handout
Should the Sprinkler Run on a Rainy Morning?
- Write your opinion. Start with "I think the school should" and finish the sentence.
- Write one reason for your opinion. Start with the word because.
- Write a closing line that tells the reader what you want the school to do.
- Havershell has had no rain for six weeks. Name one other way the school could still keep the garden alive.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Accept either opinion as long as it is stated clearly, such as "I think the school should turn the timer off on rainy mornings" or "I think the school should leave the timer on." The sentence must take a side rather than describe the problem.
- Answer: Accept any reason that draws on the passage, such as "because the rain will water the garden for free" or "because the town asked everyone to use less water." A reason that only repeats the opinion in new words should be revised with the writer.
- Answer: Accept any closing line that tells the school what to do, such as "Please shut the timer off when rain is coming." A restated opinion counts as closure at this grade.
- Answer: Accept any workable idea from the passage or from class discussion, such as watering by hand with a can, watering only the vegetable beds, catching roof water in a barrel, or watering in the evening so less water dries off the soil.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a page with the opinion sentence started for both choices so they can circle one and finish it, then write only the reason. Reread the context passage to a small group and stop at the sentence about the timer, asking one question about what the rain would do that morning.
Extension
Ask students to write a second reason and to name one person who should read their page, such as the custodian or the principal. A further step is to write one sentence a classmate with the other opinion might say, and then answer it in a sentence of their own.
ELL supports
Pre-teach sprinkler, timer, and dry with the pitcher demonstration and a simple drawing of a courtyard. Provide the frames "I think _____." and "I think that because _____." Let students speak their reason to a partner twice before writing, and accept a short phrase after because rather than a full clause.
Extensions
Have the class keep a five-day weather chart marking each morning as wet or dry, then decide as a group which mornings the timer should have been off. Students add one sentence to their opinion page naming a real morning from the chart, which turns the scenario into a decision about their own week.