Lesson Plan 1:Power Feelings
Lesson Author
First and Last
Gabriella DeReu
Name
Lesson Overview
Lesson Plan Title Power Feelings
Open /Essential Can you use stronger feeling words to create more descriptive
Question writing?
Students at a young age should be able to have a wide vocabulary to
help express how they feel in a given situation. Students will listen to
a picture book that models strong feeling words to show how they
feel. They will be introduced to a thesaurus, which is a great resource
to find and learn more powerful words. By using an online thesaurus,
Lesson Summary
they will construct a No Repeat list in which they find words that are
stronger than their current feeling word. After completing this they will
create a journal entry where they will use a word from their list to talk
about a time they felt a certain way. They will also illustrate a picture
that goes along with their journal entry.
Subject Area(s) Writing/Language Arts
Grade Level First Grade
Students will develop an understanding of what descriptive writing is
Student Objectives by discovering and using a thesaurus in order to use stronger feeling
words in a writing activity.
Standards and First Grade APS Power Standard
Benchmarks Language Arts
Writing
-Uses writing conventions (i.e., grammar, spelling, capitalization,
and punctuation)
demonstrates penmanship skills by forming all upper and
lower case letters in manuscript and properly spacing between
letters and words,
uses a variety of strategies (e.g., phonics, word banks,
environmental print) to write independently, using
developmental and/or conventional spelling,
uses phonetic knowledge and basic word patterns to spell
three-and four-letter words correctly,
uses basic capitalization (e.g., first word in a sentence, proper
nouns) and punctuation (e.g., period to end declarative
sentence, question mark to end interrogative sentence), and
uses complete sentences to write simple text.
-Uses appropriate types of writing (i.e., descriptive, narrative,
expressive, expository, persuasive, and analytical) for the intended
purpose and audience
Expressive Language: Speaking
-Increases vocabulary through reading, listening, and interacting in a
variety of situations.
-Repeats and follows oral and written two-step instructions.
List all the components for each standard including the grade level,
content area, content standard, benchmark and performance
standard.
Assessment
Student
Assessment Complete a journal entry to be graded using a checklist-see below
(include rubric)
Procedure
Step-by-step 1. Ask students:
Procedure How do you feel right now? Are you mad, happy, sad,
Please include tired?
Teaching o Go around the class and have everyone at least give one
instructions feeling word that describes how they feel
written as a Take the feeling word that was most said and say Do
numbered list you think there is another word that we can use
of steps to be instead of ____? Shake your head yes or no.
taken in order
to teach the 2. Read Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day
lesson by Jamie Lee Curtis
o Pause many times throughout the book to ask students:
Examples of
guiding or Have you ever felt __ before?
facilitation Do you like feeling __?
questions
What makes you feel __?
throughout the
lesson Have you seen someone be __ before? How did that
How and when to make you feel?
use the resources Do you think there are more words to describe feeling
and materials used __?
in the lesson Tell students about times you have felt a certain way to
model it for them throughout the book
Make sure to call on different children and ask
other children if they agree with someone elses
answer and why
3. Transition now to the bulk of this lesson
Now that we know how we are feeling and why we feel
certain feelings we can look more into using other words to
describe our feelings. What if I was to say that I was livid or
fuming rather than saying that I was mad? (use a voice and
facial expression to show the feelings) Would that be more
powerful? Would you understand how I was feeling more than
just saying I was mad? Put your thumbs up if you think it is
more powerful and put your thumbs down if you think they are
the same. (the majority of the class should agree) There is a
book we can use to find a synonym for our feeling words, this
book is called a thesaurus. Can anyone guess what synonym
means? Have a few students make their guesses and ask
other students if they agree. A synonym is a word that means
exactly the same thing as another word. So livid is a synonym
for mad. Lets explore an online version of a thesaurus.
4. Guide students to their own computer (Note: you may need to
use the computer lab for enough computers)
5. Pull up the website http://www.kidthesaurus.com/ on each
childs computer
6. Model on your own computer (that is plugged in to a projector)
how you find a synonym for a certain feeling word
Today I feel a little tired so I am going to type in tired
to see the synonyms for tired. Oh look there are a few
words that mean the same thing as tired but are more
powerful.
7. Hand out No Repeat List
"Decide what feeling you are feeling right now or a
feeling that you want to find more powerful words for.
Write that word on the top of your paper. Now use this
website to find synonyms for your feeling word. Write
them down on your lines
Model writing down the synonyms you found on your
own No Repeat List
The purpose of this is to not write the same word
more than once, so you will find five words that all
mean the same thing.
If you get stuck and cant find anymore words call me
over and I will take you to another online thesaurus
http://thesaurus.factmonster.com/
8. Give students a few minutes to share the words that they
found with their table mates or elbow buddies
9. Once they are all finished move to the assessment part of the
lesson. Hand out a piece of writing paper and various crayons
or markers.
Now use your newly found powerful feeling words to
create a journal entry on why you feel that way and if
you like that feeling or not. Write at least one sentence
properly using one or more of your new words. Then
draw a picture of how you look when you feel that way
and any objects or people that made you feel that way.
You can use these new words to tell others how you
feel in a powerful way because you are using stronger
words.
Model a journal entry that you did for your newly found
feeling words.
Have students present their entries if time allows
Lesson Extension: If you want to deepen this lesson on expression
and feelings read students My Many Colored Days by Dr Seuss. Talk
about the feelings behind certain colors and how they can use colors
to express how they feel.
Prerequisite Skills
None
Needed
Credits http://writingfix.com/
Journal Entry Checklist
Excellent Good Fair Needs
Improvement
Student was 4 3 2 1
creative in using a
stronger feeling
word
Student drew a 4 3 2 1
picture to go
along with their
journal entry
Student used a 4 3 2 1
capital letter at
the beginning of
their sentence
Student used 4 3 2 1
proper
punctuation
Student uses their 4 3 2 1
best spelling
Student uses 4 3 2 1
complete
sentences
Student stays on 4 3 2 1
track with the
topic
NO REPEAT LIST
Name:_________________________________________
Your Word:______________________
1. ______________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________
4. ______________________________________________________
5. ______________________________________________________
