Our World Lesson Plan

Notes:

In this lesson students will learn some vocabulary to describe the world around them.

Important: This lesson will review color vocabulary so you should make sure you have taught the Colors lesson before this lesson.

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Review and teach the colors vocab and sing The Rainbow Song
This lesson practices color vocabulary so make sure you have taught the colors lesson and The Rainbow Song before this one. Prepare the following pieces colored paper (origami paper works great) before class:

(review vocab) red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, blue
(new vocab) brown, white, black

Start by holding up the red piece of paper and elicit the color. Chorus the word and then let some students touch the paper as they say the word. Do this for all the review colors in the order of The Rainbow Song. Now, lay the colors on the floor and have everyone sit on the floor in front of you facing the colors. Play the song and sing along, pointing at each color as it is sung.

Finally, hold up each of the new vocab colored papers (brown, white, black), chorus and pass around the class – with students saying each word as they pass the paper.

(download MP3 here)

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

2. Play "Color Touch"
Walk around the room and stick the pieces of colored paper to the walls as you walk around. Say each color word as you stick them onto the walls and make sure they are at a level your students can reach.

Now model the game: say "Touch green!" and show everyone how you look around the walls for the green paper, then run and touch it. Encourage your students to do the same. Now have everyone stand up in the middle of the room. Say different colors as your students run around touching the colors.

3. Play "Draw colored lines"
Get a big piece of blank paper (A3 or bigger if possible). Have everyone sit in a circle around the paper with their crayons. Say, "Everyone draw a (blue) line", and model taking out a blue crayon, drawing a nice blue line on the paper and then putting the crayon back into your pencil case. Get everyone to follow suit. Continue with all the colors. In the end you will have a nice abstract piece of artwork!

4. Teach new vocab "sky" and "land"
Before class, find a picture in a book or magazine which shows a scene with the sky and land. Using this picture, point to the sky and chorus "sky" 3 times. Then say "Let’s touch the sky!" and jump as high as you can and mime touching the sky. Get everyone to copy you.

Teach new vocab "sky" and "land" Then point to the land in the picture and chorus "land" 3 times. Say "Let’s touch the land!" and crouch down and touch the ground, with everyone else following along.

Next, line everyone up and shout out instructions "Touch the sky!", "Touch the land!" with everyone jumping and crouching down. Make a game of it by going quickly but sometimes calling out sky or land twice in a row.

5. Teach new "nature" vocab
Now we have two defined categories (sky and land) we are going to provide some new words for those categories. Before class, prepare two large A4 envelopes (color one green for land and one blue for sky) and flashcards for sun, moon, stars, mountain, sea, river, cloud, rainbow, lakes, fields, forest. Pin both of the envelopes to the wall, opened, with the green one low down on the wall (to represent land) and the blue one higher up (to represent sky).

Next, show the first flashcard (e.g. sun). Ask what it is (elicit if required) and chorus. Also, elicit the color. Then ask if it belongs in the sky or on the land. Finally, give the card to a student to put into the right envelope. For example:

Teacher: What’s this?
Students: ???
Teacher: It’s a sun. Repeat, sun.
Students: sun. (chorus 2 more times)
Teacher: What color is the sun?
Students: Yellow!
Teacher: Good job! Yes, yellow. And does the sun belong in the sky (pointing at the blue envelope) or on the land (pointing at the green envelope)?
Students: The sky!
Teacher: Yes, great! Emi, please put the sun in the sky envelope (student takes the flashcard and puts into the blue envelope).

Continue with all of the flashcards.

6. Play "Slow Motion" and "Jump on it" with flashcards
Now that all of the flashcards are in the correct envelopes, we’ll test to see if everyone can remember the words by playing a guessing game.
Take one of the envelopes and slowly start pulling one flashcard out, bit by bit. Encourage your students to guess and shout out what they think it is until it is guessed correctly. The person who guesses first gets a high-five from the teacher! Do this with all of the flashcards in both envelopes.

Next, spread the flashcards, face up, over the floor and get everyone to stand up. Shout out "Jump on the (mountain)". The first student to jump on the correct flashcard wins a point.

7. Sing "The Nature Song"
The first time you play the song, put up The Nature Song song poster on the board. Quickly elicit the vocab. Play the song and sing along, touching the objects on the song poster as you sing. Get everyone to sing along and do the "sky" and "land" gestures, as described above in Gestures and activities for "The Nature Song" below. Play 2 or 3 times.

Lyrics for "The Nature Song"

Verse 1:
Sun, moon, stars, Sun, moon, stars,
Sun, moon, stars, In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 2:
Mountain, sea, river, Mountain, sea, river,
Mountain, sea, river, On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

Verse 3:
Cloud, rainbow, sun, Cloud, rainbow, sun,
Cloud, rainbow, sun, In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 4:
Lakes, fields, forest, Lakes, fields, forest
Lakes, fields, forest, On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

(download MP3 here)

Gestures and activities for "The Nature Song"

The gestures in this song are very simple - even very little ones will be able to join in.

For verses 1 and 3: these verses are about the sky, so have everyone sway their arms in the air in time with the music as they sing.
For verses 2 and 4: these verses are about the land, so have everyone sway their arms low down near the ground in time with the music as they sing.

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

8. Read classroom reader "Rainbowman Saves the Day"
This reader follows on perfectly from the song and helps to reinforce the new vocab with a fun story. Before class, download and print off the reader "Rainbowman Saves the Day". As you go through each page, point to the different features and elicit what they are, for example:

Teacher: (reading from page 2) "Into the sky" ... What is this?
Students: Sun!
Teacher: Yes, that's right. (pointing at a cloud) ... And what's this?
Students: Cloud
Teacher: Yes, a cloud! (continuing to read from page 2) “Past the clouds and sun. No one here!”.
etc.

Read classroom reader "Rainbowman Saves the Day" Continue through the story, eliciting the key vocab. Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. about the colors on the rainbow and Rainbowman's costume, the different transport vocab, etc.).

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) as students draw the route Rainbowman took on his adventure. Then go through the answers as a class.

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Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required):

9. Do an "Our World" wall poster
We’ll finish with a nice craft activity. Before class, prepare the materials: a large sheet of black or blue construction paper/card with a large circle cut out of green construction paper/card glued in the middle of it (enough sheets for each group of 3 or 4 students). The black/blue paper is the sky whilst the green circle is the Earth. Give out these sheets and have each group have fun drawing objects from the song in the sky on the Earth. You can also get a bit more creative, such as:

sticking on blue wool for rivers
glitter for stars
cotton wool for clouds
blue paint for seas and lakes
green felt for fields
etc.

When everyone has finished, pin up the posters to the walls and go around the class asking questions and giving lots of praise.

Wrap Up:

1. Assign Homework: "Our World Draw" worksheet. It is worthwhile modeling this worksheet, especially if your students are not able to read. Quickly demonstrate drawing the objects on the land and in the sky.
2. Wrap up the lesson with some ideas from our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.