The Sun, Moon, and Stars / Grade 1: Module 2: Unit 1: Lesson 5

“Sun, Moon, and Stars” Version 2 Song

L.1.1c, L.1.1d, L.1.1e

“Sun, Moon, and Stars” Song

(sung to tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”)

The sun shines over us all,

I seeit sparkle like a ball.

The moon lights up the night sky,

I seeit glimmer bright and high.

Stars make patterns in the night,

I seethem twinkle faint and bright.

The sun, the moon, and the stars,

I seethem all from afar.

Whenever I look into the sky,

I seethem there way up high.

For ELLs: Language Dive Guide:
Summer Sun Risin’

(For Teacher Reference)

Rationale: This excerpt was chosen for its use of contractions, its use of the present progressive tense, and its connection to current and future content. Students will apply their understanding of the meaning and structure of this excerpt as they discuss complete their culminating tasks and Unit 1 Assessment. Invite students to discuss each chunk briefly, but slow down to focus on the highlighted structure Summer sun’s blazin’.

Time:12 minutes

  • Throughout the Language Dive
–Encourage rich conversation among students about the meaning of each of the sentence strip chunks, what the academic phrases within each chunk mean, and how they relate to the sentence and the text overall. Monitor and guide conversation with total participation techniques and Conversation Cues.
–After asking questions, provide students up to one minute of think time to reflect, depending on the complexity of the question. Alternatively, invite partners to discuss, providing an allocated time for each student.
–Record and display student responses next to or underneath the target language for visual reference.
–Where possible, consider placing sketches, pictures, or illustrations above key nouns and verbs in the chunks after discussing their meanings. This will allow students to quickly access the content of each chunk as they work with the structures in the sentence as a whole.
Deconstruct:
  • Place your finger on the stanza: Pa takes the wheel, I work the gears. / Summer sun’s blazin’, burnin’ our ears.
  • Read the stanza aloud twice, following along with your finger.
  • Invite students to chorally read it aloud with you.
  • Ask:
“What is the meaning of this verse?” (Responses will vary.)
“How does this Language Dive help you understand what the boy is doing and what the sun is doing?” (Responses will vary)
Deconstruct:
  • If necessary, follow a process similar to the one below for each key word in the stanza that is unfamiliar to students.
  • Say:
“There are some words and phrases in this verse that you might not know: gears.”
“Gears are the parts in a car or vehicle that the driver needs to control to help it go faster or slower.”
  • Point to the boy’s hand on the gearshift in the illustration.
  • Mime shifting gears in a car (motion arm with closed fist forward and backward), and invite students to pretend they are controlling gears on the vehicle of their choice.

  • Display and read aloud the following chunk: Pa takes the wheel,
  • Ask:
“Who is this chunk about?” (Pa. The boy’s dad.)
“What does Pa do?” (takes the wheel; drives; steers the tractor)
  • Invite students to pretend they are “taking the wheel” and driving the tractor.

  • Display and read aloud the following chunk: I work the gears.
  • Ask:
“Who is this chunk about?” (the boy)
“What does the boy do?” (helps Pa drive the tractor; controls the gears)
“Why do you think they are driving the tractor?” (to take care of the crops, or plants, that they have on their farm)
  • Invite students to pretend they are “working the gears.”

  • Display and read aloud the following chunk: Summer sun’s blazin’,
  • Ask:
“What is this chunk about?” (the sun)
“What is the sun doing?” (blazing; burning hot)
  • Point to the word sun’s, circle the apostrophe and the s, and ask:
“What does the apostrophe and the s do in this sentence?” (It smooshes together the words sun and is.)
  • Invite a student to rewrite the chunk thus far without the apostrophe. (Summer sun is ...)
  • Point to the word blazin’, circle the apostrophe, and ask:
“What does the apostrophe do at the end of this word?” (It makes it shorter. It leaves off the g of the -ing.)
Deconstruct:
  • Invite a student to rewrite the rest of the chunk without the apostrophe. (Summer sun is blazing,)
  • Ask:
“Why do you think the author chose to use apostrophes instead of writing the sentences the long way?” (It sounds more like a song or poem; it sounds more like the way the boy might talk.)
  • Ask:
“What is the author trying to tell us by using the word blazing?” (The sun is burning; the sun is on fire; the sun is hot.)
“Where do you think the sun appears in the sky if it is blazing? What makes you think so?” (high; The sun is hottest when it is highest in the sky.)
  • Invite students to pretend they are outside on a blazin’ hot day.

  • Display and read aloud the following chunk: burnin’ our ears.
  • Ask:
“What else is the sun doing?” (burning the boy’s and Pa’s ears)
  • Point to the word burnin’, circle the apostrophe, and ask:
“What does the apostrophe do at the end of this word?” (Itmakes it shorter. It leaves off the g of the -ing.)
  • Invite a student to rewrite the chunk without the apostrophe. (burning our ears)
  • Students can pretend their ears are burning.

Reconstruct:
  • Tell students that playing with the chunks out of order like a puzzle can help them figure out how English works.
  • Scramble the sentence strip chunks so that the sentence doesn’t make sense and display so all students can see. Say:
“Put the chunks of the verse in the correct sequence.”
  • Invite students to work with their partners. Cold call students to come to the front to put the chunks in the correct order for the whole class to see.
  • Point to and read the entire stanza in sequence: Pa takes the wheel, I work the gears. / Summer sun’s blazin’, burnin’ our ears.

Reconstruct:
  • Read the verse aloud again.
  • Ask:
“What other questions can we ask that will help us understand this verse?” (Responses will vary.)
“Now what do you think is the meaning of this verse?” (Responses will vary, but may include: The boy and his pa are driving the tractor and the sun is hot.)
“How does this Language Dive help you understand what the boy is doing and what the sun is doing?” (Answers will vary, but may include: It tells us he is helping his dad drive the tractor. It tells us the sun is blazing and burning their ears, so it is high in the sky.)
“What do you notice about how the words in this verse sound or look?” (They rhyme.)
“How do we know this text is a poem? What clues are there in the writing?” (It rhymes. It is written in chunks of short lines like verses or stanzas.)
  • If productive, cue students to listen carefully and seek to understand:
“Who can tell us what your classmate said in your own words?” (Responses will vary.)
Practice:
  • Tell students they will use similar language to write a sentence about what the boy and sun are doing the in the story.
  • Display and read aloud the sentence frame:
    In the ______[part of the story], the boy’s ______[-ing or –in’ action].
    The summer sun’s ______[-ing or –in’ action].
For lighter support: In the ______[part of the story], the boy’s ______[-ing or –in’ action]. The summer sun’s ______[-ing or –in’ action], ______[-ing or –in’ action].
For heavier support: Consider using a word bank with possible responses.
  • Ask:
Was our Language Dive about the beginning, middle, or end of the story?” (middle)
  • Invite a student to write middle in the first blank of the sentence frame.
  • Ask:
“What are some things the boy is doing? You can choose to use -ing or -in’.” (drivin’; helpin’; working)
“What is the sun doing? You can choose to use -ing or –in’.” (burning; blazin’)
Practice:
  • Model verbally completing the sentence frames. Examples:
In the middle, the boy’s drivin’. The summer sun’s burnin’.
For lighter support: In the middle, the boy’s drivin’. The summer sun’s burnin’, makin’ us sweat.
  • Tell students you will give them time to think and discuss with their partners. Say:
“Use this frame to tell your partner about what the boy and the sun are doing in the middle of the story.” (Responses will vary.)
  • Tell students that posting the chunks in language categories will help them use the language again for future speaking and writing tasks.
“Can you post the language chunks around the room on the appropriate Language Chunk Wall?”
Examples:
Nouns and noun phrases (people, places, things) / Verbs and verb phrases (actions and states)
Summer sun’s blazin’,
Pa takes the wheel, / I work the gears.
burnin’ our ears.

For ELLs: Sentence Strip Chunks:
Summer Sun Risin’

Directions for Teachers:Create sentence strip chunks as shown below. Follow the instructions in the Language Dive Guide.

Pa takes the wheel,
I work the gears.
Summer sun’s blazin’,
Burnin’ our ears.
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