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Sample Lesson Plan
Using Literature to Teach Elementary School Math and Science
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Education
ED312, Spring 1996; Professor Maria Varelas
Lesson by Edith Rodriguez
- A second or third grade level
- Interesting, very useful
- Introduce the concept of measurements
The first thing I would do to introduce the book to the children is to start by reading it to them. As I go along I would ask questions such as: Is the robin's tail five inches? Why or why not? At this point I would give a child a ruler and have the child measure the inchworm to determine whether the worm really measures an inch. Then have the child measure the tail of the robin and tell me how many inches the tail measures. This activity would introduce them to the concept of measuring. I would then have a different child measure the different animals that are presented in the book. For example, one child can measure the flamingo's neck and tell me how many inches it is. Another child could measure the heron's legs, another measure the toucan's beak and so on. Finally, when I would get to the end of the story I would ask the children questions such as: How do you think the inchworm measured the nightingale's song? Was it possible for the song to be measured? Then according to their ideas, it would be the way that I would develop a class discussion.
Next I would have the children get tinot groups of three or four and measure themselves. This would be relevant to the activity that was done with the book when measuring the different parts of the animals. I would give them a ruler to use for measuring. I would then have one child choose what part of the body they wish to measure, some ideas would be to measure their arms, legs, neck, whole body, etc.. A second child would do the measuring and the third child would record. The fourth child would choose a particular part of the body that they measud and compare the size among each other in the group. Then as a whole group they would tell me for example, whose arm was longer. I would then ask them how and why did they come to this conclusion. This would be an activity that would be used in the classroom as a group project.
Another activity that could be used is word problems. I would ask them for example, How many inch worms would you need to measure a stick that is two and a half feet long? For this activity the students should already understand the concept of measuring in feet. I would give each group several inchworms (worms which measure an inch), a ruler and a stick. The purpose for this is so they can use whatever tool is most useful to them. I would also ask several other questions similar to this one to give them more practice.
For homework I would ask my students to estimate and then measure four articles, anything they like. I would pass out a sheet with four columns, one for each article they wish to measure. I would ask them to write the name of the article and underneath to write their estimation and then the actual measurement of the article. I would give each student a ruelr or several inch worms whichever they like to do this activity. This home work activity would give me the opportunity to integrate the concept of measurement with the concept of estimating. Of course in order to do this activity they would already understand the concept of estimating.
Finally, I would assess my students. I would do this by creating several drawings of different parts of an animal and have the childfen measure the parts. For example, I would give two or three children a drawing of a giraffe. The giraffe would have different parts that would need to be measured. I would ask them to measure for example, the legs, the neck, the body, etc. The idea is to have the test as relevant as possible to the book. This kind of assessment would also determine whether my lesson was successful or not.
I believe this child literature book has meaningful concepts that are useful in math and science as wel las in other subject areas. As a future teacher I plan to have this book available as a resource for my students.
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Last updated: 9/7/96
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