Lesson plan Kindergarten English Language Arts

One Rainy Day on Lamplight Lane: A Retelling Lesson

A 30-minute kindergarten lesson where students order five picture moments from one rainy day on Lamplight Lane and retell them using first, next, and last.

Grade: Kindergarten
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 30 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Five picture cards drawn or printed by the teacher, A pocket chart, The class weather chart from the past week, One printed handout page per student, Crayons or pencils

Standards

W.K.3 Common Core ELA

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

How this material aligns: Handout items 1 through 4 have students tell the rainy day's events in the order they happened, and item 6 asks for the reaction to what happened that this standard also requires.

All materials for W.K.3 →

K-ESS2-1 NGSS

Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

How this material aligns: The chart step has students share their own observations from the class weather chart and say whether the past week held more rainy days or more sunny days, describing a pattern over time.

All materials for K-ESS2-1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-03.

Objectives

Students will put five moments from a rainy day in the order they happened.
Students will retell the rainy day using the words first, next, and last.
Students will read the class weather chart and say whether more days were rainy or sunny.

Vocabulary

Cloud: A cloud is a visible mass of tiny water droplets or ice crystals floating in the sky. Clouds form when water vapor cools and condenses onto tiny particles of dust or salt in the air.

Also: puddle, dry, sunny

Teacher overview

Lamplight Lane is a fictional street used for this lesson, and the whole lesson follows one rainy day there from a gray cloud in the morning to a dry sidewalk by the next afternoon. Students order five picture moments and retell them with sequence words, which gives them a narrative structure that has a real beginning, middle, and end. The misconception worth naming here is that many kindergartners believe a puddle drains away into the ground every time, and they do not consider that the sun can lift water back up into the air. The last two picture cards are built to raise that idea directly, and the closing question asks students where the puddle water went.

Draw or print the five cards before class: a gray cloud, rain falling on the sidewalk, a full puddle at the curb, the sun over a smaller puddle, and a dry sidewalk. Keep them in a shuffled stack until the ordering step. Print small copies of the same five pictures, in shuffled order, across the top of the handout page for item 1.

Procedure

Hook (3 min): Ask students to close their eyes and picture the last rainy day they remember. Ask two or three students to name one thing they saw outside that day, and write those answers on the board.

Teacher read-aloud (6 min): Read this account aloud twice. "On Lamplight Lane the morning sky went gray. A big cloud came over the houses. Then the rain fell. It fell on the roofs and on the road. A puddle grew by the curb. It grew wide and flat. The rain stopped. The sun came out over Lamplight Lane. The puddle got small. The next day the sidewalk was dry. The puddle was gone." Hold up each picture card as you reach that part.

Class ordering (7 min): Shuffle the five cards and place them out of order in the pocket chart. Ask the class to move them into the right order, one card at a time, with a different student choosing each move. As each card lands, have the class say the sentence that goes with it.

Weather chart step (4 min): Bring out the class weather chart from the past week. Ask students to count the rainy-day marks and the sunny-day marks aloud together, then say which kind of day there were more of. Ask, "Was this week more like the Lamplight Lane story or less like it?"

Handout work (8 min): Give each student the handout page. Students number the pictures in order, retell the day with first, next, and last, and answer the closing question about the puddle. Scribe for any student who dictates.

Closure and formative check (2 min): Hold up the sun card and the empty-sidewalk card together. Ask, "Where did the puddle water go?" Call on five students at random. If three or more say it went down into the dirt only, restate the read-aloud line about the sun and plan to revisit the sun card the next morning.

One Rainy Day on Lamplight Lane: A Retelling Lesson — Kindergarten English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

One Rainy Day on Lamplight Lane

Number the five pictures 1 to 5 in the order they happened.
Tell the story of the day. Start with the word first.
Tell the middle of the day. Start with the word next.
Tell the end of the day. Start with the word last.
The sun came out. What happened to the puddle?
Draw your face for how you feel on a rainy day. Tell one word about it.

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: Gray cloud, rain falling, wide puddle, sun over a small puddle, dry sidewalk. This is the order the read-aloud gives from the gray morning sky to the dry sidewalk the next day.
Answer: Accept any retelling that begins with the cloud or the rain, such as "First a big gray cloud came over the houses." The word first must be used to open the sentence.
Answer: Accept any retelling of a middle event, such as "Next the rain fell and a puddle grew by the curb." The word next must be used to open the sentence.
Answer: Accept any retelling of the ending, such as "Last the sun came out and the sidewalk got dry." The word last must be used to open the sentence.
Answer: It got smaller and then it was gone. Accept "the sun dried it up," "it went into the air," or "it went away," all of which match the last two cards.
Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any drawn face plus one feeling word, such as happy, sad, cozy, or bored, since this item asks for the student's own reaction to the day.

Differentiation

Support

Cut the ordering task down to three cards for these students: the cloud, the puddle, and the dry sidewalk. Give a spoken sentence frame for items 2 through 4 ("First the ___ came.") and let students fill the blank with one word or a pointed picture.

Extension

Ask confident students to add a sixth card of their own showing what happens on Lamplight Lane the next time a cloud comes over. Have them place it in the sequence and explain in one sentence why it goes where they put it.

ELL supports

Pre-teach cloud, rain, puddle, and dry by holding up each card and saying the word three times with a gesture: fingers wiggling down for rain, hands spreading flat for the puddle, and palms rubbing together for dry. Post the words first, next, and last on sentence strips with a numeral beside each, and allow students to complete items 2 through 4 by pointing to a card and saying one word.

Extensions

Set a shallow pan of water on a sunny windowsill and mark the water line with a strip of tape. Check the line together each morning for three days and add a sentence to a class chart each time, so the class watches the same disappearance the Lamplight Lane puddle went through.