Lessons & Units :: Genre Studies: Nursery Rhymes Kindergarten Unit

Lesson 2: Characters

Lesson Plan

Learning Goal
Explain that nursery rhymes have characters.
Identify the characters in a nursery rhyme.
Duration
Approximately 50 minutes
Necessary Materials
Provided: Unit Example Chart, “Humpty Dumpty,” “Little Miss Muffet,” and “Three Blind Mice”
Not Provided: chart paper, markers, paper bags (lunch size)

  • Before the Lesson

    Prepare paper bags and art supplies for the Independent Practice.

  • Teacher Modeling

    will explain to students that another characteristic of nursery rhymes is that they include characters, just like story books do. I will remind students that a character is a person, animal, or object with person-like qualities (i.e. a talking spoon). I will add “Characters” to my Characteristics of Nursery Rhymes Chart that I started in Lesson 1 (Example Chart is provided in Unit Teacher and Student Materials). I will read aloud the familiar nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty,” and identify the characters in the rhyme by looking for character names and descriptions of people, animals, or objects with person-like qualities as I read.

  • Think Check

    Ask: "How did I identify the characters in a nursery rhyme?" Students should answer that you looked for names and descriptions of the people, animals, or objects that are like people while you read the story.

  • Guided Practice

    will read “Little Miss Muffet” and work together to identify the characters by identifying the names and descriptions of people, animals, or objects with person-like qualities in the nursery rhyme. We will record the title and the characters on our chart. We will reflect that characters are a characteristic of nursery rhymes.

  • Independent Practice

    will listen to “Three Blind Mice.” You will independently identify the characters in “Three Blind Mice.” You will create a paper bag puppet of a person, animal, or object with person-like qualities that are characters in the nursery rhyme. You will explain how you know this is a nursery rhyme. Note: You may want to have students save their puppets for use with Lesson 3.

Build Student Vocabulary frightened

Tier 2 Word: frightened
Contextualize the word as it is used in the story “There came a big spider, Who sat down beside her. And frightened Miss Muffet away!”
Explain the meaning student-friendly definition) Someone who is frightened is afraid or scared. If a spider frightened Miss Muffet away, that means the spider made her scared, so she decided to get up and leave.
Students repeat the word Say the word frightened with me: frightened
Teacher gives examples of the word in other contexts When he heard a loud noise in the middle of the night, he was frightened. If you’re very quiet, you won’t frighten the rabbit away.
Students provide examples When do you feel frightened? Start by saying, “I feel frightened when ___________________________.”
Students repeat the word again. What word are we talking about? frightened
Additional Vocabulary Words tuffet, spider

Build Student Background Knowledge

After reading the first two lines of “Little Miss Muffet,” pause and explain to students that “curds and whey” is an old way to describe cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is a milk product made from cows that you can buy at the grocery store. It is not smooth like yogurt or cream cheese. Instead it has little balls of milk product called “curds.”

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

(To see all of the ReadWorks lessons aligned to your standards, click here.)

User Comments