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Sample Lesson Plans
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 Ivette Robles
- Second through fourth grades
- The book is easy for this age level to read. It will not only aid students in terms of reading comprehension, but will aid them in their development of vocabulary words as well. The book incorporates a bit of history as it relates to the sun and other stars.
- Goals and objectives for the lesson
- Students learn that the sun is a star, and that it and other stars are made of the same gases found on earth; mainly hydrogen and helium will be emphasized.
- Students learn that there are other stars in space that are smaller, the same size, and larger than the sun.
- Students learn that distance plays an important role in terms of why stars appear to be smaller from the earth than the sun and less bright than the sun, even though some stars are the same size or larger than the sun.
- Students learn that brightness (light), heat, and gases (hydrogen and helium) are some of the properties of the sun.
- Students learn that there is a relationship between the different temperatures of stars and their colors (blue-white, white, yellow, orange, red).
- Students learn that the sun is necessary for supporting life on earth.
- Students learn what happens if the sun is too close to the earth or too far away. In other words, they learn the importance of distance with respect to the sun's distance to the earth.
- Before I begin the actual lesson, I will take a bag of sun flower seeds and place about five seeds on each student's desk. In order to gain my students' attention I would ask these questions: Where do sunflower seeds come from? Are there really any flowers that come from the sun? Can any living creature survive on the sun? Why or why not?
- After having gained my students' attention with the sunflower seeds and the question I asked them, I would then inform them of the objective of the lesson.
- Before I begin reading the book, I would ask my students a few questions about the sun and other stars. My purpose in doing so is to stimulate their recall and to activate their prior knowledge of the topic of this lesson. The questions I would ask my students are as follows: Where do you see the sun? Is the sun hot or cold? Is the sun a planet? Could it be a star? Do you think the sun is larger than the earth? Is the sun larger than all other stars in space? Are there stars in space larger or smaller than the sun? Why is the sun important? Can life on earth survive without the sun? Why or why not? What do you think the earth might look like if there were no sun?
- Then I would begin reading the book aloud to my students. I would pause during the reading of the book to answer my students' questions about the text, ... and I would also pause to ask my students questions or to reflect on the text and concepts related to what I want them learn. The pauses I take during the reading to ask questions are the points in the book that I think are important to discuss and emphasize with respect to their relevancy to my objective for the lesson.
- Followup assignment:
- The students will work on the activity together in class, in groups of four. Each group will receive a sheet with this information:
- The temperature of a star can be told by the color of its burning gases.
- Blue-white equals 22,000 degrees F
- White equals 19,000 degrees F
- Yellow equals 10,000 degrees F
- Orange equals 8,000 degrees F
- Red equals 5,000 degrees F
- What color would the following stars be? Rank them in order from the hottest to the least hot. Where does our sun fit on the list? What color are stars that are 8,000 degrees F? What color are stars that are 15,000 F? What color are stars that are 20,000 F?
- Stars: Rigel--22,000 degrees F; Betelgeuse--5,000 degrees F; Vega--19,000 degrees F; Aldebaran--7,500 degrees F; Spica--22,000 degrees F; Procyon--13,500 degrees F; Antares--5,000 degrees F; Capella--10,000 degrees F; Sirius--19,000 degrees F; Canopus--13,500 degrees F; Arcturus--7,500 degrees F.
- By doing this in-class activity, I am aiming to reinforce the concept that the temperatures of stars are related to their colors. I am using a problem-solving approach, in a sense, with respect to the fact that students must figure out which stars are the hosttest and which are least hot. In addition, the students must figure out the colors of stars with temperatures that do not exactly correspond with the temperature provided on the sheet, so the students must work together to figure out the colors of these stars. If the students complete the assignment incorrectly, for example, if students' papers claim that the star Rigel is yellow and the least hot of the stars, then I could be included to think that they misunderstood the concept of color as it relates to stars' temperatures. ...
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