Date: October 31
Grade Level: 2
Focus Book: Hurricanes! by Gail Gibbons
Session # 3
Teaching Point:
They will have a basic understanding of hurricanes and what to do to be prepared and safe!
Integration of content areas:

2.2.6 Learn about, report on and practice severe weather safety procedures.
Integration of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, movement, or the arts:

2.5.8 Research Application:
Write or deliver a research report that has been developed using a systematic
research process (defines the topic, gathers information, determines credibility,
reports findings) and that:
• uses a variety of resources (books, technology, pictures, charts, tables of contents,
diagrams) and documents sources (titles and authors).
• organizes information by categorizing it into single categories (such as size or
color) or includes information gained through observation. (Core Standard)
Read aloud or demonstration:
Hurricanes! by Gail Gibbons
Instructional strategies including planned discussion questions:
1. Start by showing the students the cover of the book and read the title. Have students
Think/Pair/Share about their background knowledge of hurricanes.
2. Start reading text-explain both the words and the pictures.
3. Page 6-stop reading- do paperclip experiment.
a. Explores the strongest and weakest parts of a hurricane
b. Materials
i. Bowl, water, string, paper clip, wooden spoon
c. Procedure:
i. Fill the large bowl 2/3 full of water.
ii. Next, cut a 10-inch piece of string and tie one end to the paper clip.
iii. Using the wooden spoon, stir the water until it is moving in a circular
motion.
iv. While the water is in motion, drop the paper clip into the water in
different locations.
v. Write down your observations and determine where the paper clip
traveled the fastest. This location will be where the strongest part of
the storm is located. Based on this knowledge, where is the weakest
part of the storm?
4. Page 9-While reading, and before reading pages 10-19, show image of the SaffirSimpson chart to see the differences between the levels.
5. Skip pages 22-25. (The stories might frighten our students!)
6. After we read what to do during a hurricane get out Severe Weather Safety Journal
Hurricanes
What is a Hurricane?
Where is the safest place to be during a hurricane?
What do you do to prepare your house?
What should you put in your emergency kit?
Draw a Picture of a Hurricane
(Don’t forget it’s name!)
Reflection
We stuck with the same set up so that the students would have some kind of
consistency and an understanding of what is expected of them during our sessions.
Since behavior has been an issue I feel that by sticking with a similar layout for the
lessons helps students understand the routine and gives them an idea of how to
properly behave. I believe this helped to some extent but was not as effective as I would
have liked since we still had some arguing.
Another major adjustment we had to make this time was that Josh was having a
bad day and needed a lot of extra support. He came in late because he was talking with
his teacher. He had apparently forgotten a folder at home and got in trouble for that. He
was very concerned about the fact that he was in trouble and was having a lot of trouble
participating due to that concern. Once we had finished with the book and the
experiment, which again every student actively engaged in, josh shut down again when
we asked him to start working on his journal. At this point I decided to take him by
himself to work. I talked to him a little bit and let him know that he was not in trouble
with me, and that I knew he was concerned about what happened in class, but we
needed to get some work done here. He seemed to respond a little bit better once I had
that discussion with him.
I also decided that since he was in such an emotional state and getting him to
write on a good day was a challenge, that I would do the writing for him as long as he
dictated the information to me. He seemed to perk up a little more after I shared this
information with him. He had not been paying much attention to the first story, and the
other students were using it to help them with their journals, so I helped Josh use the
book The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole to find the information
he needed for the journal. We looked at the pictures for the most part to help jog his
memory. We had more verbal discussions than anything else and I just took notes about
what we discussed in his journal. He started off soft spoken but got into it more as we
went and he could see that I was happy with him and he was getting correct answers.
For the drawing part, he was doing well enough to join the others. He actually did one
of his most on topic drawings during this time.
As for the other students during the journal time I did not really have to
opportunity to observe them but based on their journals they seemed to be getting the
ideas down and seemed to be engaged when I glanced over. Again they were all really
engaged during the drawing portion but had trouble sharing the markers.
Josh’s Hurricane journal (Dictated by Josh, Written by Brittany)