What happened before the lesson?

Where did the idea come from? 
Growing patterns are in many children’s books. The book, The Bear Snores On, provided the idea for this lesson since it could easily be adapted as a counting pattern.

What had the children learned BEFORE this lesson? 
Children had seen growing patterns in a variety of songs and poems. They had also identified and created repeating patterns in the AB and ABB forms.

What did you plan to do AFTER this lesson?
More and more growing patterns with other stories (for example, Counting Crocodiles and Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats (see Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats for that lesson).

What's happening during the lesson?

Objective: Children will identify the missing parts in the growing pattern from The Bear Snores On.

Introduction:
Read the story from The Bear Snores On.

Procedure:

1. Select children volunteers to be characters in the story. Act out the story with the characters entering the cave one at a time.
2. Review the story using the chart visualization that illustrates a growing pattern. 
3. Discuss and identify the missing elements.

What will I do after the lesson?

What would you do differently if you taught it again?
Because of the taping deadlines, I did not give this lesson enough time. We acted out the story after just one reading. This is a story that should have been read many times before we were ready to act it out. Then the props should have been placed in the creative dramatics center so children could continue to act it out. 

How would you describe the teaching that occurred using the words on the Continuum of Teaching Behaviors?
I SUPPORTED children’s thinking with the chart showing all the creatures that came into the cave. The chart visualization displayed the pattern so that children could see the “growing” occur.