PROJECT: MEASUREMENT

TEACHER: ERIN PITRE

SCHOOL: GOLDEN MEADOW LOWER ELEMENTARY

CONTENT: Math

GRADE LEVELS: 1st

OBJECTIVES:
The student should be able to:

• Select appropriate non-standard units for linear measurement situations (e.g., sticks, blocks, paperclips) with no more than one error. (Evaluation)

TIME: 60 minutes

MATERIALS
Power Point
Ziploc bags
Links
Paper clips
Unifix cubes
Tiles
Wooden blocks
Pencils
Mystery bag with classroom items (teacher choice) (1 item per group)
Pictures of art concepts (cool & warm colors, curvilinear & rectilinear lines, and geometric shapes)
White paper
Colors
Markers
Color pencils 
Appendix 1
Appendix 2

INTRODUCTION/PREPARATION/ANTICIPATORY SET:
The teacher will tell the students, “Yesterday, I went to the doctors office for a check up.  While I was in the office, the nurse measured my height.  I am 5 foot 4 inches.  She used a tool similar to the ruler, which you have been using to measure things around the classroom this week for Math.”  The teacher will hand each student some links and ask “I wonder what I can use these links for today?”  The teacher will lie down on the ground and ask the students to measure her from head to toe using all of their links.  The students will have to work together cooperatively by connecting their links to measure the teacher.  The teacher will say, “Today you will be selecting appropriate non- standard units for linear measurement situations.”

ACTIVITY:
Teach / Model: Through the use of a Power Point the teacher will discuss the different non-standard units for linear measurement.  Afterwards, she will demonstrate how to measure different items in the classroom by selecting appropriate non- standard units of linear measurement.  For example, she will measure the door by selecting links not paper clips, due to the large area to measure.  She will measure a pencil by selecting paper clips due to the small area to measure.  She will repeat the above process using real life items in the classroom. She will also discuss the colors of the unifix cubes she is using for the activity. (She is using blue cubes, which is a cool color and red cubes, which is a warm color.) 

Guided Practice: The teacher will break the students up into cooperative groups.  Each group will be able to choose an item from a mystery bag to measure.  Each group will be given a Ziploc bag of non- standard units for measurement.  The students must select the appropriate non-standard unit to use to measure the certain item.  Each group will display their item by holding it up in front of the classroom and discussing the non- standard unit they used for measurement.  

Independent Practice: (The teacher will give directions for the activity. The teacher will review and display pictures of warm and cool colors, lines (curvilinear and rectilinear), and geometric shapes.)  The learner will trace his/her foot on a piece of paper.  The teacher will hand out Ziploc bags of units to use for measurement.  The learner will select appropriate non-standard units for linear measurement out of the Ziploc bag. (Higher learners will receive more units than struggling learners)  The learner will measure his/her foot using the appropriate unit and write the measurement on the back of the foot.  The learner will use warm or cool colors, lines (curvilinear or rectilinear), and geometric shapes to illustrate his/her foot.  The teacher will specify the boys using warm colors and the girls using cool colors.  The lines and shapes will be student choice.  The student must include 1 shape and either curvilinear or rectilinear lines or both.  Early finishers will be able to take this activity a step further by cutting out their foot and creating a list of items to measure using their foot.  They can create this list in their journal.  (Example: My desktop is ____feet.)

Closure: The teacher will hop one time.  The teacher will ask the students, “What non-standard unit for measurement should I use?” The teacher will review the different non-standard units used for this activity. 

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
The learner will select appropriate non-standard units for linear measurement situations by completing an evaluation. (Appendix 2)

Informally I will check students understanding through observation and questioning throughout the lesson.  I will give a pretest on art (Appendix 1) before I teach this lesson or even introduce any new art concepts and a posttest on art and math concepts after this lesson. (Appendix 2) I will also use a rubric (Appendix 3) to grade the foot created in the independent practice.  I will attach Appendix 2 and the foot rubric for one grade.

ART CONTENT/CONCEPTS:
M-2-E:  Selecting and using appropriate standard and non-standard units of measure (e.g., paperclips and Cuisenaire rods) and tools for measuring length, area, capacity, weight/mass, and time for a given situation by considering the purpose and precision required for the task (1,2,3,4). VA-CE-E1:  Explore and identify imagery from a variety of sources and create visual representations.
VA-CE-E5:  Draw on imagination, individual experience, and group activities to generate ideas for visual expression.
VA-CE-E3:  Use art vocabulary and the elements and principles of design to convey language of art (create and discuss own artwork).

COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM, GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
VA-CE-E1:  Explore and identify imagery from a variety of sources and create visual representations.
VA-CE-E5:  Draw on imagination, individual experience, and group activities to generate ideas for visual expression.
VA-CE-E3:  Use art vocabulary and the elements and principles of design to convey language of art (create and discuss own artwork).

The following benchmarks for math will be ongoing for this unit:
GLE 20:  Measure length to the nearest inch and centimeter using appropriate tools. (M-1-E)
GLE 23:  Compare the measure of objects to benchmarks (e.g., the width of a student’s thumb is about 1 centimeter, the weight of a loaf of bread is about 1 pound, and the mass of a textbook is about a kilogram) (M-2-E) 

MODIFICATIONS | ACCOMODATIONS:
During my guided practice I will have students grouped in cooperative groups according to their levels. (high, medium, low)  During my independent practice I will give out certain Ziploc bags of units to use for measurement. For example, my higher learners will receive more units than my struggling learners.  I will also specify the boys using warm colors and the girls using cool colors.  I will touch on all levels of learning such as visual, kinesthetic, etc.  

TEACHER'S REFLECTION:
My students really liked the hands- on lesson I taught on measurement using the arts. They truly enjoyed the art concept along with the math concept I taught in this lesson. Now that I have taught my students a few art concepts they want to draw every picture in their journal using geometric shapes, curvilinear & rectilinear lines, and warm & cool colors. I think these concepts will not only help my students grow artistically, but educationally also.

I felt my set induction and lesson presentation or teaching/modeling activities went very well. My students loved measuring me on the floor, even though it was a little scary for me. They also enjoyed the Power Point because of all the warm and cool colors. They loved the independent practice using the art concepts taught with markers, colors, and colored pencils. They loved the closure because they got to measure how far I hopped using links.

I could have maybe improved the lesson by changing a few details or activities. If I could have changed anything in this lesson, I would have changed the guided practice by assigning certain jobs to certain students. I found my students had a hard time deciding which non-standard unit they would use to measure the object with, mainly because they wanted to use their standard unit and not the other members of the group. I feel cooperative groups are sometimes tricky in first grade. I also felt this lesson should have been taught in two days instead of one day, due to the time constraint. It was a lot of material to cover in one day. I could have covered the art concepts on day two, which would have given my students more time to create their colorful feet.           

All in all, I felt the lesson went wonderful. I loved the comparison between the boy’s warm colored feet and the girl’s cool colored feet. I also liked the cute pictures created using different types of lines and shapes.  All of my students improved on the posttest from the pretest. I really enjoyed the fact that my students caught on so quickly to the art concepts and were so creative in their journals prior to this lesson. I hope this creativity follows them throughout their lives.

RESOURCES:
Lafourche Parish School District Curriculum Mapping
Comprehensive Curriculum
Math Work Plan

TO DOWNLOAD APPENDIX 1 and 2 FOR THIS LESSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE

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