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Lesson plan Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics

Teasel Ridge's Crew Log: How Weather Changes Town Jobs

A 45-minute grade 1 lesson in which students tally a town crew's twelve-day log by weather category and answer eight questions about the results.

Objectives

  1. Students will sort twelve days of a town crew log into three weather categories.
  2. Students will count and compare category totals using tally marks within twenty.
  3. Students will explain one way weather changes the work a town crew does.

Vocabulary

Storm drain
A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.

Also: weather, tally, town crew, log

Teacher overview

Public work crews plan their week around the weather, and a first grader can see that pattern in a simple log. In this lesson students read twelve days from the work log of a fictional crew in the town of Teasel Ridge, sort each day into rainy, dry, or snowy, and count what the crew did. The counting stays within twenty and uses tally marks, which matches the grade's data standard.

A misconception worth naming out loud is that a town crew does the same job every day. The log shows three different jobs tied to three kinds of weather, so students can point to evidence rather than guess. Print the handout before class, since the log is the only thing students need in front of them.

Procedure

Opening (5 min): Ask students what they did differently on the last rainy day, then on the last snowy day. Take four answers. Tell the class that grown-ups who work outside change their plans the same way, and that the town crew in Teasel Ridge keeps a log of what they do each day.

Reading the log together (8 min): Project or read the twelve-day log from the handout. Read one row at a time and have the class say the weather word aloud. Point out the three jobs: clearing storm drains, watering park trees, and salting the bridge. Ask why each job goes with that weather, and write one short reason for each on chart paper.

Modeling one tally (5 min): Model tallying only the snowy days on the board, making one mark per snowy row, and show alongside it how a full bundle is written with a crossing mark, so students recognize the form when they tally a longer category. Students copy the modeled snowy tally onto item three. Do not tally the rainy or dry rows for the class, because those two counts are the students' own work.

Independent work (15 min): Students complete handout items one through eight. Circulate with counters for students who need to move an object per row.

Formative check (5 min): Check answers to item four by having each student point to the written answer as you walk the room. Every student should have twelve. If more than five students have a different number, gather those students and recount the log rows together before the debrief.

Debrief (7 min): Ask two closing questions aloud: Why did the crew clear storm drains on rainy days? and What did the crew do on snowy days, and why? Land on one sentence the class repeats: Weather changes what the town crew does each day. Post the sentence beside the chart paper reasons.

Teasel Ridge's Crew Log: How Weather Changes Town Jobs — Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The Teasel Ridge Crew Log

Read the log. Then answer the questions.

Day Weather What the crew did
Day 1 Rainy Cleared storm drains
Day 2 Dry Watered park trees
Day 3 Rainy Cleared storm drains
Day 4 Snowy Salted the bridge
Day 5 Dry Watered park trees
Day 6 Rainy Cleared storm drains
Day 7 Snowy Salted the bridge
Day 8 Dry Watered park trees
Day 9 Rainy Cleared storm drains
Day 10 Snowy Salted the bridge
Day 11 Rainy Cleared storm drains
Day 12 Dry Watered park trees
  1. Make one tally mark for each rainy day in the log. How many rainy days are there?
  2. Make one tally mark for each dry day in the log. How many dry days are there?
  3. Make one tally mark for each snowy day in the log. How many snowy days are there?
  4. The log has rainy days, dry days, and snowy days. How many days are in the whole log?
  5. There are 5 rainy days and 3 snowy days. How many more rainy days than snowy days?
  6. There are 5 rainy days and 4 dry days. How many fewer dry days than rainy days?
  7. The crew cleared storm drains on the 5 rainy days. The crew salted the bridge on the 3 snowy days. On how many days did the crew do one of those two jobs?
  8. Which weather word goes with clearing storm drains? Write the weather word.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 5 days. Rainy appears on days 1, 3, 6, 9, and 11, so the tally is four marks with a fifth mark crossing them.
  2. Answer: 4 days. Dry appears on days 2, 5, 8, and 12, so the tally is four separate marks.
  3. Answer: 3 days. Snowy appears on days 4, 7, and 10, so the tally is three marks.
  4. Answer: 12 days. Adding the three categories gives 5 + 4 + 3 = 12, which matches the twelve rows in the log.
  5. Answer: 2 days. Comparing 5 rainy days with 3 snowy days gives 5 - 3 = 2.
  6. Answer: 1 day. Comparing 4 dry days with 5 rainy days gives 5 - 4 = 1.
  7. Answer: 8 days. Adding the two job counts gives 5 + 3 = 8.
  8. Answer: Rainy. Every row that says cleared storm drains also says rainy, because leaves and water fill the drains when it rains.

Differentiation

Support

Cut the log into twelve paper strips and let students physically sort the strips into three piles before counting. Give a tally frame with the three category labels already written. For items five through seven, provide a ten-frame and counters so the comparison is built rather than computed.

Extension

Ask these students to write two more questions of their own about the log, each with an answer they can prove by pointing at rows, and to trade questions with a partner. A strong second task is to predict what the crew would do on a thirteenth day that is rainy, and to explain the prediction using the pattern in the log.

ELL supports

Pre-teach rainy, dry, and snowy with three picture cards, and keep the cards visible during independent work. Pair the job phrases with a gesture: raking for clearing drains, pouring for watering trees, and scattering for salting the bridge. Accept the weather picture card as the answer to item eight instead of the written word.

Extensions

Start a classroom version of the log. Each morning one student records the weather word and the class records one thing that changed because of it, such as indoor recess or a wet playground. After twelve school days, tally the classroom log the same way and compare the shape of the two data sets.