Number & Operations (Webcast #2) How Many Are Hiding Lesson?
What happened before the lesson?
Where did the idea come from?
My plan for story problems with young children is illustrated in The Octopus Story pages 48–51 in The Young Child and Mathematics. While this lesson has a different story, the children still 1) Act it out!; 2) Talk it out!; and 3) Draw it out! To get the specific story that appears on the videoclip, I used an event that actually happened in our school. Children will remember what they have experienced.
What had the children learned BEFORE this lesson?
Children had used manipulatives frequently to understand the quantity of four. They had described sets of four in parts (i.e. 0-4; 1-3; 2-2; 3-1; and 4-0).
What did you plan to do AFTER this lesson?
Every week there will be a story problem related to mathematics. The same process will be used as is evident in this lesson: Act it Out!, Talk it Out! and Draw it Out!
What's happening during the lesson?
Objective: Children will solve a word problem by acting it out, talking it out, and drawing it out.
Introduction: Introduce the problems by introducing the four characters in the story.
Procedure:
1. Act it Out!- As you tell the story, children act it out.
Story: Four children went outside to
play. Two of them came into the school
when the bell rang. How many
children are missing?
2. Talk it Out! Children work with a partner, 4 manipulatives, a hiding bush and a workmat. They make up their own stories and tell each other the story. The partner who is listening to the story, covers his/her eyes while the other partner places the manipulatives and covers some with the bush. The listening partner, opens his/her eyes and responds by telling how many children s/he thinks are hiding behind the bush. They then switch places and tell new stories.
3. Draw it Out! Children use four colored adhesive dots and place them on individual workmats. They then add features to the dots so they become children on the playground. Finally, the bush is taped on the paper so that 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 children are covered. The individual pages then become part of a class book entitled, “How Many are Missing?” (see pictures below)
Children worked together to tell their stories of the children on the playground. Then they used the paper “green bush” to hide some of their children.
The class book included the drawings the children made of their playground, children on the playground, and a green bush partially taped to the page so children could peek at the answer!
What will I do after the lesson?
What surprised you about the children during this lesson?
The children identified the quantity four as two parts: two girls and two boys. We had done that with manipulatives previously. I was surprised they could connect that work with this word problem.
What would you do differently if you taught this lesson again?
I will use a different story…one that relates to something that has happened in the classroom.
How would you describe the teaching that occurred using the words on the Continuum of Teaching Behaviors?
I SUPPORTED children’s thinking and creation of their own stories. I had the playground workmats for everyone, and a sample on the board for all to see. I also wrote the directions to make their page using a rebus.
