Lesson Plans

Telling Time with The Grouchy Ladybug

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Lesson Overview

Read the book, The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle.

Write the 17 times (e.g. “noon or 12:00 PM” and “five or 5:00 PM”) from The Grouchy Ladybug on a separate piece of paper. Times are every hour from 5:00 AM through 5:00 PM, and 5:15 PM, 5:30 PM, 5:45 PM, and 6:00 PM.

Give each child a piece of paper (each has their own time). Ask them to fill in the clock and write down what happens in the story at their time.

Read the story a second time and students write in the activity happening on their paper.

Let students draw their scene on their paper.

Have students read their scene aloud and show their drawing.

When students illustrate their page, ask them to draw a sun where the sun would normally be at the time of their part of the story (e.g. right at the center top for noon).

— Via Memory Anderson on Eric Carle’s website 

Note: With a larger class, have two students do each time, making a total of two books.

Lesson Goals:

  • Students can position the hands of an analog clock to match a written time
  • Students can position the sun in the sky to match the time of day

Lesson Plan Materials

See this idea and more ideas in detail on Eric Carle’s website.

Also see ideas for introducing book on Educators.about.com.

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Content.1.MD.B.3 Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.2.MD.C.7 Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.A.1 Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
  • AASL 4.1.8 Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.

Understanding Shapes with Grandfather Tang’s Story by Ann Tompert

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Lesson Overview

Discuss with students What are shapes? Why do we use shapes?

Read Grandfather Tang’s Story (Dragonfly Books), by Ann Tompert, and point out how shapes can be used to tell a story. Then you let students use tangrams to fill in animal shapes and chat with them about how the pieces line up and form bigger shapes. With older students, you could make several sheets of tangram sheets into a story.

Lesson Goals

  • Students can identify shapes and can use smaller shapes to form larger, composite shapes.
  • Students can explain various places they see shapes.

Lesson Plan Materials

  • Lesson Plan Instructions: Grandfather’s Tang Story (PDF) (courtesy of Imelda Amano)
  • Also need plastic tangram pieces or enough copies of a traced tangram sheet for students to cut out
  • Also need copies of animal shapes that fit the tangrams you have

 Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.6 Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, “Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?”
  • CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real world situations, and further investigations.

Note: Modified from Library Lesson Plan Library

Understanding Perimeter with Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!

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Lesson Overview

Read the book, Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! (Marilyn Burns Brainy Day Books), by Marilyn Burns.

Discuss how the amount of space you have around a table is the perimeter. It’s the length of the distance around the table. When you push the tables together, the tables took up the same amount of space (area) but the space around the table got smaller.

1 “Cut out squares of cardboard or use small square tiles so that children can construct the different ways the guests in the story arranged the tables. Help children experiment so they can see that Mrs. Comfort ordered the fewest tables possible. You may want to have them reconstruct some [alternate arrangements].”

2 “If children are interested, go through the book again and help them draw a picture of each new table rearrangement and figure out how many people could be seated at each. Use the words area and perimeter to talk about the size of each arrangement and the number of people it seats.”

3. “Use the cardboard squares, tiles, or drawings to investigate the following problem: Suppose their were going to be just 12 people at the family reunion. What different table arrangements are possible? Which arrangement would use the fewest tables? Which arrangement would use the most tables? (For additional challenges, try the same problem for 16, 24, 36, or any other number of people.)”

— Ideas from notes at the back of the book

Lesson Goals:

  • Students can measure the perimeter of table arrangements
  • Students can determine the fewest number of tables they would need to seat their entire class.

Lesson Plan Materials

See this idea and more ideas in detail in McKinney and Hinton 2010 p. 22.

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.2 Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.C.5 Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.

Skip Counting by Twos

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Lesson Overview

Read the book, How Many Feet in the Bed?, by Diane Johnston Hamm.

Focus on how the story lets students skip count by twos. When the father is in the bed, there are two feet, and when one more person gets into bed, there are four feet. Show that this is skip counting: if another person gets into bed, there will be six feet. Expand on this idea by asking, how many toes are in the bed? and skip counting fingers and toes by 10s. For older grades, add more people to the bed to cover adding and subtracting larger numbers. — Ideas from McKinney and Hinton 2010

Lesson Goals:

  • Students can skip count by twos.
  • Students can skip count by 10s.

Lesson Plan Materials

See this idea and more ideas in detail in McKinney and Hinton 2010 p. 22.

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.2 Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.C.5 Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.

Tracking Media Use

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Lesson Overview

Lesson plan in which students calculate the number of hours they spend each day using digital media, and input their data on bar graphs. This lesson applies the strategy of data modeling to a real-life situation that students can relate to. This lesson was created with teenagers in mind, but the lesson can be adapted for children who are not using tablets and phones as much (they can track watching TV for example).

Lesson Goals:

“Students will be able to …

  • assess how much time they spend with media activities.
  • record and compare the time they spend with different forms of digital media (cell phones, Internet, etc.) and in different activities (texting, posting, and watching or creating videos).
  • formulate a viewpoint on the role that digital media play in their lives.”

Lesson Plan Materials

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

The original lesson was aimed at middle school students, and Common Sense Media suggests it targets CCSS.ELA.SL.6-8.2 (Interpret information in diverse media, including quantitatively) and CCSS.ELA.SL.6-8.5 (Use displays, including graphics, to present information). Adapted to younger grades, it could support:

  • CCSS.ELA.SL.5.2 Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
  • CCSS.ELA.SL.5.5 Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
  • CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 Model with mathematics.

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.
  • AASL 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.

“The Library Problem” – An Ongoing Column in Teaching Children Mathematics

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Schad, Brian, Joseph Georgeson, and Sarah Bunten. 2010. “The Library Problem.” Teaching Children Mathematics 16 (7): 387–89.

The authors, elementary and middle school math teachers, describe a math lesson plan that takes elementary age students to the local public library to gather and analyze data. The students count the number of words on a page of a picture book, and then tally the number of letters in each word on the same page. They describe two methods: older students can work in pairs where one student counts and one completes the table, and younger students can complete the activity using one page with a whole class. Once they have gathered data, they analyze it with the goal of understanding relationships between numbers (e.g. ratio, fraction, decimals, percentages) and how numbers can be visually represented (e.g. on a tally sheet). The authors claim that this exercise puts a difficult concept like rational numbers in the context of how many words you read or how difficult a book is. The authors conclude by inviting other teachers to try the same problem in their classes and share the outcomes. This lesson could be easily adapted by a school librarian or by a public children’s librarian.

Lesson Goals:

  • Students can tally the number of words on a page of a picture book
  • Students can tally the number of letters in each word on a page of a picture book
  • Students can compare these figures and discuss patterns they observe

Lesson Plan Materials

For more detailed instructions and examples, see: Schad, Brian, Joseph Georgeson, and Sarah Bunten. 2010. “The Library Problem.” Teaching Children Mathematics 16 (7): 387–89.

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 Model with mathematics.

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.
  • AASL 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.

Related Articles

  • Small, Marian. 2010. “North Dakota’s Centennial Quilt and Problem Solvers: Solutions: The Library Problem.” Teaching Children Mathematics 16 (7): 386–93.

Check Out the Math: One Elementary School’s Library-Based Math Program

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Lambert, Nancy Jo. 2013. “Check Out the Math: One Elementary School’s Library-Based Math Program.” School Library Journal. September 12.

A school librarian created a new statistics word problem each month, posted it in the library, and invited students to participate. The word problems were all based on real library statistics: how many books were overdue, number of bookshelves needed. In many elementary schools, all classes visit the library every week or every other week. This is a great way to show students how math is connected with everyday life, participate and discuss problem-solving together.

Lesson Overview

Students are invited to participate in an optional activity in the library, where they respond to a statistics question that changes each month. The questions address solving real questions or problems in the school’s library. Students must write out their problem-solving technique. Students with the correct answer may receive a library-related benefit, like an extra check out.

Lesson Goals:

  • Students can apply different strategies to solve statistics word problems.

Lesson Plan Materials

  • Create statistics word problems using your library’s real statistics and problems, and consult with your teachers to have them provide you with feedback about the questions and possible solutions.

Common Core State Standards this Lesson Supports

  • CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

  • AASL 2.1.3 Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.