Spring is Coming!

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Read aloud the book Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman.
• As you read, pause to note the different things that happen during each season.

Guided Practice

• Ask students to think about each of the seasons. Point to the prepared chart paper labeled with each season, and ask the students to turn and talk to a partner about what they might see in the spring.
• Record students' thinking on the chart paper.
• Repeat the activity with the remaining seasons.
• Refer students back to what they heard in the book as needed.

Independent working time

• Explain that students will now choose one of the things that they see in the spring to write a sentence about. They will then get to use their artistic skills to illustrate their sentences.
• Remind students to sound out their words by listening to each of the letter sounds they hear and using all of the sounds in their writing.
• Point out the list that the class created in the previous section as one place students can find words and/or ideas for their sentences.
• Encourage students to be creative and think about the story we read and how the author talked about colors.
• Pass out the What I See in the Spring worksheets to each student.