Everybody Loves a Daredevil in First Grade

Students in grade one are investigating the topic "daredevils" by listening to nonfiction books, watching videos, writing, and practicing text features. It's a fascinating topic and students have been at the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens to these brave (and crazy!) people. Through online videos, we are able to enhance the stories with real footage of stunt locations and similar modern daredevils. My favorite part about this unit are the questions students generate about the daredevils and their stunts. This is an excellent topic to practice inquiry.

Annie Taylor

First person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Read aloud:

Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg (truncated a lot of the text to make it digestable for 1st graders)








Video:


Activity: Create your own vessel to go over Niagara Falls. Draw a picture and write about it.

Betty Skelton

Early female flyer who flew stunt planes, rode motorcycles, raced cars, performed water stunts, and trained with astronauts.

Read aloud:

Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton by Meghan McCarthy








Video:


Activity: Build a stunt plane with craft sticks and cotton balls and use the "label" text feature.

Phillippe Petit

Man who walked between two buildings in NYC on a tight rope.

Read aloud:

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein








Video:


Activity: Students practice walking on a "tightrope" made out of tape. Students create a "Coming Soon" poster using text features about a tight rope walker coming to East Providence.

"I Have a Dream" in First Grade

I have a dream that people have enough
money to keep their children healthy.

We read Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo & Brian Pinkney (illustrator) in first grade in honor of MLK's birthday. First grade teachers get an A+ for giving students an excellent foundation on Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and accomplishments. Happy Birthday Martin Luther King also gets an A+ for explaining the changes MLK made in a clear and concise way perfect for early elementary-aged students. After we read the book, students were asked to think of a dream they have for making the world a better place. This took a little explaining as first responders had dreams like, "to get a new dog", or "to make it rain candy." It had to be a dream that would help everyone. They wrote it in an "I Have a Dream" cloud that I found here and drew a self portrait. I was amazed at the thoughtfulness of the responses not to mention how darn cute they looked. Below are a few of the portraits and below that are all of the responses from three first grade classes.

I have a dream for everyone to read more books.

I have a dream that everybody will stop fighting.

I have a dream for noone to bully anyone.

I have a dream that people will never litter again.

First grade responses to "I have a dream to/for..."

everyone has a house
all the school can get updated
that we can be together
to give people more food
give people money who are poor
have more to drink
rain candy
everyone stop fighting (2)
everyone stop polluting
everyone stop littering
everyone read more books
everyone can get back their Dad and me too
to make the world a better place
that everybody would be nice
that people have enough money to keep their children healthy


to calm people down
to help elderly people
to help elderlies cross the street
to share and share alike
to pick up trash
that people don’t hurt themselves
to stop polluting for animals
help other people cross the street
to donate clothes
help people with their mail
that everyone will be nice to each other
to help people that have allergies to make them feel better
to give poor people food
help people walk if they are hurt
to give the food they need
to help the earth
to help people learn

that nobody litters (2)
that everybody can live
that everyone does good in school
for everybody to be happy
the world be a better place
every class will get along
to stop bullying people
for none bo bully anyone
that the world had better food
that I was the nicest ever
that nobody will steal
don’t do something against the law