In Linda Morel’s lesson, students are encouraged to stretch their imaginations by realizing that poetry about rain doesn’t have to be confined to drops that fall from the sky. The goal is to encourage students to broaden their perspective. Early childhood students are often very literal. In this lesson, students are encouraged to see outside of the box, to be silly, and to imagine what else could rain down from the sky besides wet drops of water.

Lesson Overview

Grade: Kindergarten

Genre: Poetry

Download: Rain Can Be Anything: Kindergarten Poetry Lesson

Common Core State Standards: (Refer to the ELA Standards > Reading Literature > Kindergarten and ELA Standards > Writing > Kindergarten)

ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
ELA-Literacy.W.K.5
With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Guiding Questions:

What is rain?

Is rain real?

Have you ever seen rain?

What does rain sound like?

Where does it rain?

Can rain ever be something we imagine?

Can we imagine something else falls from the sky besides wet drops of water?

Suggested Continuation Practice for Classroom Teacher: The same lesson can be repeated with snow, hail, or other weather events.

LESSON

Introduction

The students arrange themselves on the carpets in preparation for poetry reading and writing. The poem of the week is shown on the SmartBoard with an attractive picture. This week’s poem is Jack Prelutsky’s “It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles.”

Ask students the Guiding Questions.

Main Activity

Part 1: Group Discussion (10 mins)

Introduce the idea that rain doesn’t have to be literal. We can use the imagination to create silly things falling from the sky and lovely word pictures. Foods, flowers, Teddy bears, or favorite things can fall from the sky.
The students and teacher read the poem aloud. Students are asked to point out some of the imaginary things in the poem that fell from the sky.
Students brainstorm some of the imaginary things they think can fall from the sky. Their ideas are written on the board.

Part 2: Independent Writing (20–25 mins)

At their desks, students are given a handout with poem on the top half and lines printed on the page below for them to write a poem about imaginary, very unusual things that they think could fall from the sky.

Closing (5 mins)

A few students share their poems. (If classroom is equipped with a SmartBoard attachment that can post what is written on a sheet of paper, each poem is displayed on the SmartBoard while its author reads his/her poem aloud.)

Materials:

Handouts: Jack Prelutsky’s “It’s Raining Pigs And Noodles”
SmartBoard (if available)
An opportunity to look out the window if it is a rainy day.

Vocabulary:

Rain, real versus make believe, imagination

Multi-Modal Approaches to Learning:

Visual, tactile (when students look out the window), auditory when students discuss what rain sounds like.

Rain Can Be Anything