Reflecting on UbD Lesson #1

I taught my first UbD lesson yesterday- Introduction to science notebooks and beginning a KWL chart for Water. The lesson took place at the very end of the day. Overall, I believe the lesson went fairly well. The science notebooks were looking really good. Students had started work on them with my CT earlier and had made a sketch of a leaf and one investigation entry not related to the water unit. I had students begin their word bank and then we had a mini-lesson on the carpet to go over how to fill out a KWL chart. I had some students share outloud what they knew about water and what they wanted to know about water. Students returned to their desks to complete the first two secions (KW). I walked around taking an informal assessment of student understanding and progress. Towards the end of independent work time, students who had finished their entries began to work on unfinished math from earlier that day. I had students who were struggling with things to write down share ideas with their neighbors. Then, right before school was being dismissed, one student wanted to share his letter from his pen pal. So we didn't get to the formal closing I had written. But that's okay because as I've learned, when it comes down to it, you just have to be flexible when you're teaching. And letters from pen pals sometimes take priority.