Beginning of the School Year Classroom Lessons

Focusing Lesson - Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control
I typically complete this focusing lesson at the beginning of the school year so that the concepts and language can be utilized throughout year.  I offer this lesson to all K-3rd grade teachers.  (The kindergarten and 1st grade lessons are adapted.)

Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control, which is written and illustrated by Lori Copeland, is an awesome story that gives students helpful tools they can use to focus not only in the classroom, but all areas of their life. The language used in the story is easily understood and remembered.  I have utilized this story when working with students individually, in groups, and for classroom lessons.

I took pictures of every page of the story, and created a Keynote presentation on my i-pad.  By doing this, I was able to inset the fun activities provided in the workbook seamlessly into the lesson.  It also made the story easily viewed by the whole classroom. The lesson created for the K-1st graders and the 2nd-3rd graders are linked below.  (The links are to PowerPoint Presentations.  I converted the lessons when I saved them to my computer.)

2nd and 3rd Grade Hunter Lesson                            K and 1st Grade Hunter Lesson
Game 1: The Pause Game - Be sure the students say
                                             the color, not read the word.
Game 2: The "Shoulds" - Switch "I should not have" to
                                         "Next time I will try to."
Game 3: Zapper Game - Have the students say "Bzz"
                                        to phrases that should be 'zapped.'
Game 4: Famous Failures - Simply expand on the information.

At the end of the lesson, the students were given a remote control of their own.  It then depended on the teacher for the next step.  Some teachers had the remote control taped down to the top edge of their desk.  This allowed the students to refer to the buttons without the distraction of them picking up the paper and playing with it during class.  Other teachers preferred the students to simply take it home as a reminder of the lesson. Again, the actual remote control looked different depending on grade-level.  I even added some buttons as a result of teacher requests!  (For my lessons students have a "play button" and a "stop talking button.") This is another great feature of the book, it is able to meet the needs of every classroom.

2nd and 3rd Changer

K and 1 Changer

2nd and 3rd Channel Changer







             K and 1 Channel Changer




Even if the students are not able to refer to their personal remote, I gave each teacher a larger version of the remote to hang in their classroom.  Along with the remote control, they also received a "cheat sheet" on how to use each button.
Data Collection:
At the end of the lesson there is a QR code that links to a post test.  I utilized a QR code because all of the students in our school have iPads.  This system made the data easy to obtain and manage.

2nd and 3rd Grade Remote Teacher Copy / 2nd and 3rd Grade Teacher Information Sheet

K and 1 Remote Teacher Copy / K and 1 Grade Teacher Information Sheet

2nd and 3rd Grade Teacher Materials

K and 1 Teacher Materials

K or 1 Enlarged Teacher Copy