Detailed Lesson Preparation Guide

Elementary Education
Title: The Giving Tree
Grade: K
Concept/Topic: Key Details in the Text and Lessons Learned
Time Needed: 45 minutes

Backward Design Approach: Where are you going with your students?
Identify Desired Results/Learning Outcome/Essential Question:
Goal: To make students aware of all they have to give and recognize the value in giving to others.
New understandings: Exposure to empathy and compassion
Hold a discussion on personal characteristics and things we can give which do not cost money. Make our own
giving tree of what we will give to each other within the classroom. To carry this into social action, discuss
what our school, community, and country needs and talk about what we can give to help those things.
Questions: Has anyone ever given you something? How does it make you feel? Do you like giving to others?

Essential Question:
What important life lesson can we learn from the giving tree?

Learning Outcomes:
Students will identify the key details in the text.
Students will describe the lesson learned.
Students will apply the life lesson to their own lives.

NCSCOS Standards:
Reading K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and
texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about
the topics and texts under discussion).
b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
Assessment Plan:
How will you know if the objectives/desired results have been met? What will you see and/or hear that is
evidence of student understanding? How will you know that students really understand the identified Big
Ideas?
Students will recognize that giving is a good thing by saying things such as: it makes me feel good, it makes
others feel good, some people have things I dont have and I have some things others dont have
They will recognize their possession of things available for giving which are not monetary by listing things
like: kindness, a hug, borrowing my pencil, etc.
It will be clear they really understand when they are able to list ideas and a plan of action for areas beyond a
relationship between two people (classroom, school, community, so forth)

Meeting the student where they are:

Prior Knowledge/Connections:
What can target students be expected to know and/or understand about the concept/topic? How does this
lesson connect with other things that students may have learning or experienced? How will you help
students to make the connections between what they already know and what they will be learning in this
lesson?
Students have exposure to giving just through their daily school routines: sharing pencils, snacks, toys, etc.
They are used to discussing text and are eager to do so. We will extend this routine idea of giving/sharing
and really talk about what it means, why it is important, and how we can actively do it.

Lesson Introduction/Hook:
How will you focus, excite, engage, and/or elicit knowledge as you introduce this lesson? Think of ways you
can appeal to student interest and cause students to be excited about what they will be learning about.

To introduce the lesson, students will talk about giving and things that they give. Then we will talk about
what the environment and trees give to us. Students will share their thoughts and ideas in the form of group
discussion. This will get students prepared for the book and thinking about giving and the various forms it
can come in. Now read aloud The Giving Tree. While reading aloud these are some questions:
- What do we think is going to happen?
- What is the tree giving the boy?
- Is the boy appreciative and thankful?
- How is the tree feeling?
- How is the boy feeling?

To introduce the lesson, students will be given a cut-out piece of paper of a seed in which they can write a
word that describes a characteristic of a change-maker (i.e. person who makes a difference). The teacher will
instruct students that they only have 5 minutes to think and write their word down on the cut-out seed.
Once the time is completed, students will then share with the class their characteristic. Students will stand
and form a community circle around the classroom to share their characteristic. This activity will engage
students in thinking about their own personal experiences, prepare them to be engaged in the text, as well as
strengthen the classroom community.

Heart of the Lesson/Learning Plans Differentiation/Same-

ation:

Giving is something which does not require material wealth

Compassion and empathy is achievable by all students
The text is presented orally through a read aloud, so all students will be able to access the text and
work to determine the key details as whole group.
Turn-and-talk will be used to allow English Language Learners to develop ideas before sharing out
with the class.
This will be a very collaborative project

Lesson Development:
Provide a detailed description of how the lesson will progress. What will you do as the teacher? This
should be a detailed step by step account of how a lesson unfolds from beginning to end.

I Do Part of the Lesson (Teacher Reads the Book Aloud):

The teacher will ask students to join the teacher at the carpet. They will listen as the teacher reads the text,
The Giving Tree. The teacher will first read the title and author of the book. Then students will go through a
picture walk of the text, which will help enhance engagement and participation. As the teacher reads, there
will be many stopping/discussion points throughout the book. Below are some suggestions:

After the boy grows older and leaves the tree alone a lot, the teacher can model their thinking here. Could
ask questions such as, why do you think the boy stopped visiting the tree so much?, have you ever had a
toy that youve grown out of?
When the tree gives the boy apples to sell, point out that even though the tree did not have exactly what the
boy was looking for, he gave everything that he did have to make the boy happy. This shows how much the
tree cared for the little boy.
The boy took all of the trees apples but it still says that the tree was happy. Ask the students, why do you
think the tree was still happy after giving away all of its apples?
Model thinking after the tree offers the boy to cut off its trunk to make a boat. Hmm, the tree let the boy
take its whole trunk just to make a boat. It seems like the tree cares more about the boy and his happiness
than he cares about himself.
Ask the students after the line and the tree was happy. But not really. Why they think the tree was not
actually happy?
In the end the tree was happy just to have the boy sit on his trunk. Model thinking by pointing out that the
tree only truly cared about the boy and spending time with him.

We Do Part of the Lesson (Teacher and Class Work Together):

The teacher will then ask students to raise their hands and share their thoughts on the story and what they
thought about both the tree and the boy. After this group discussion is completed, the teacher will instruct
the students to pull their seeds back out and discuss the word they had written down before the story. The
class will then discuss whether or not they think the tree displayed the characteristics they had written down
in the text, and why they think that. This will allow them to relate their knowledge previous to the story to
their knowledge after the story.

Next, the teacher will instruct all of the students to turn their seeds over to the blank side. On that side, the
students can either write (if they know the word) or draw a picture of different things that they can
share/give to their family, classmates, and community. They will be given another five minutes to do this
activity, and then the students will rejoin into the circle community done at the beginning and share some of
the words and drawings that they put on the back of their seed.

Lessons Learned: Turn-and-talk to a partner, what can we learn from the tree? What can we learn from the
boy? How can we be more like the tree in our community? Be sure to use the events that happened in the
text to support what you are thinking.

The teacher should call on each pair one time to ensure everyones thoughts can be heard, and will use the
white board or paper to create a list of things that can be learned from The Giving Tree.
You Do Part of the Lesson (Students Work Independently):
The teacher will connect the story to the students live by asking how they have seen other people be like the
tree to them in their lives, and how they made them feel. A possible answer to this question could be parents,
siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.
Students will then each be given a paper leaf. The students will be instructed to think about one specific
thing that they could give/help to their classmates throughout the rest of the school year that does not cost
them any money. Each student will be given 3-4 minutes to complete their drawing on their leaf, and once
everyone is done each student can glue their leaf onto a tree trunk to create a community tree of everyones
gifts that they can share.

Specific Questioning:
Student questioning should be planned ahead of time. Think about your students and their needs. Plan
questions that will challenge all students.

- What are gifts that you can give to people that do not cost you any money?
- Is the tree sad that he is giving parts of himself away or is he sad because the boy leaves?
- Why does the boy stop visiting the tree as much?
- Do you think the boy understands how much the tree has actually given him?
- How does the tree feel at the end?
- How does the boy feel at the end?

New Vocabulary:
List and define all new vocabulary that students will need to understand in order to have optimal success
with desired learning results. How will you use this vocabulary in the context of the lesson?

Trunk-main wooden structure of the tree

Love-an intense feeling of deep affection
Giving-let someone have something
Sacrifice-giving something up that you want to keep
Happiness-delight, smiling
Joy-a feeling of great pleasure and happiness
Forest-a large area covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth
Sailed-travel in a boat
Weak-lacking strength
Stump-the bottom part of a tree left on the ground after most of the trunk has fallen or been cut down

This vocabulary will be introduced right before the book is introduced so that the students will be able to
better understand the story and the lessons that can be learned from it.

Concluding the Lesson/Closure/Debriefing:

How will you wrap things up and tie together the ideas presented? How will you help students make
meaning from their experiences
This will include the process of putting the leaves onto the classroom community tree. Once each student
has had a chance to add their leaf, the teacher can go over all of the easy ways the students can give to each
other in a way that does not cost any money, and can also share a couple of their ideas for giving to their
classroom also.

Materials/Resources:
List everything that is needed to deliver the lesson. Cite any materials that you used in crafting the lesson.
Be specific and review this as you rehearse.

The text The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Leaf cut out
 Seed Cut-Out
 Tree for the leaves to be attached to
Markers, Colored Pencils, or Crayons

Teaching Behavior Focus:

What is the goal for my teaching behavior and/or actions? See TBF List for suggestions.
Building classroom climate: Using positive reinforcement such as

Simple verbal acknowledgements

Extended verbal acknowledgements
Differentiated reinforcement
Delayed reinforcement
Non-verbal reinforcement

Follow-Up Activities/Parent Involvement

Lesson extensions discussed here. What will student do to utilize this new information? How can you involve
parents in the process of lesson extension in the home?

Inform the parents of the lesson and the story, and encourage them to discuss what their child learned
through the lesson
Have each child make a goal to give one person something that did not cost them any money, and then
come back the week ready to share what they gave.
The student can identify one person that has been like the tree to them and write them a thank you
letter