Subject: Math Grade Level: 5 Topic: The Metric System Time Allotment: 45 minutes Teaching Date: Day 1 I. (A) Goal(s): For student to gain conceptual understanding of the metric system and how to convert from one metric unit to another. (B) Instructional Objectives: 1. The student will be able to convert one metric unit to another metric unit. II. Standards: 1. ALEX (5:13): Convert a larger unit of measurement to a smaller unit of measurement within the same customary or metric system. III. Teaching Learning Procedures: Time: 45-60 minutes Activity: The Metric System A. Motivation Introduction: Open up by asking students if anyone has ever heard of the Metric System. Allow for student answers. Tell students that the metric system is an internationally agreed on system of measurement. Say that sometimes it is important to know how to convert from one unit of measurement to another. Questions include: 1) What do you know about the metric system? 2.) What is the metric system used for? 3.) How do we convert from one unit to another unit? Say: "Today we will be learning about the metric system and how to change from one metric unit to another. I am going to show you a shortcut method to convert from one unit to another. B. Teaching/Learning Activities: Start by showing students a drawing of a metric system number line which includes kilo, hector, deka, unit (meter, liter, gram), deci, centi, mili. Tell students that we first start with our unit in the middle which can be meter, liter or gram, then to the left and to the right we have our prefixes. The prefixes to the left are larger than our unit and the prefixes to the right are smaller. Ask student to read the line to class. *Make note that although this looks like a number line, the numbers get LARGER where on the regular number line they would actually get smaller. Say It is important to remember kilo, centi, mili because they are used most often. It is important to remember the order, kilo, hector, deka, unit deci, centi, mili. One way to remember is to say to yourself, King Henry drinks dark ucky chocolate milk. Now you can use this silly way to
remember kilo, hecto, deka, unit, deci, centi, mili. Instruct everyone to copy this number line down so they can refer back to it. The reason the line is so important is because when we are converting it helps us know where to move our decimal place. We are going to start with the unit we are given. So if we are given 7 meters and want to convert it to centimeters, count how many spots you go over (count out loud). Then move your decimal place to the right. Add in the number of zeros. 7.00m 700 cm. *Tell students to remember that if the decimal place is not already there, it is always found at the end of the number.* Example 2.) 15L to 15mL. Start with our 15 and our decimal to the right. Look back at the number line. Start at liter, the unit and look over at milliliter and count 1,2,3. 15.000 L 15,000 ml Example 3.) 30,000 mg to g. Start at the right milli, which is represented by mg, and to get to gram we count 1,2,3 to the left. So our decimal point starts at the end of the number 30,000, and we count to the left 30.000. So we have 30 grams. No the new decimal point is where the comma was. Pass out Investigations metric conversion sheet Converting Metric Units Using Decimals and Using Decimals. Go over directions and go over three sample problems by asking for student responses. After putting up each problem, allow for students to turn to a partner and think about the answer. Go over answers. Afterwards, instruct students to work independently to complete the rest of the problems. Walk around helping students as they work. C. Closure: Tell students, So that s it, that s the short cut method to unit conversion. You need to remember kilo, hectic, deka, unit, deci, centi, mili. Write your number line on your sheet and from there on you re moving the decimal. I hope you found King Henry Drinks Ucky Dark Chocolate Milk as fun as I did. Tomorrow we will be learning about the standard system of measurement. Tomorrow I want you to bring back one interesting fact about the metric system and the standard system of measurement. IV. Materials Needed/ Media: Investigations worksheets Dry erase markers and white board V. Accommodations: For autistic student, give copy of lesson plan to special ed. teacher for her to explain to him. For student with broken arm, allow her extra time to do the worksheet. Provide extra assistance for her when needed. VI. Assignments:
Completing Using Decimals and Converting Metric Units Using Decimals worksheets from Investigations Come up with one or two interesting facts about the metric system and standard systems of measurement to share with the class the next day. VII. Assessment: 1. Informal: Walking around and observing student work; student worksheets. 2. Formal: To be assessed at the end of unit VIII. Personal Reflection: I thought this lesson went particularly well. It was one of my most successful math lessons where students seemed engaged throughout the entire lesson. The one problem I witnessed among many students was confusion of where a decimal goes when it is not present. Many students would forget and think the decimal places starts at the beginning of the number. I used this problem as a chance to conduct a quick lesson on decimal placement. One problem I observed during instruction was that many students did not understand why when you convert from a bigger unit to a smaller unit, your number gets larger instead of bigger. These two facts made me realize that mathematically conversions weren t making complete sense to them. It also made me happy because they were thinking about the metric system and the logic behind it. I gave a short lesson explaining Why? I painted an analogy of tennis balls vs. cars in the classroom. I asked them how many cars they thought would fit in our classroom (about 2), if we were able to get them in here, then asked them about how many tennis balls (a few thousand) they thought would fit. I then explained that a larger unit is usually represented by a smaller number because the unit itself is so large, and a smaller unit is usually represented by a bigger number because the unit itself is so small. So then I asked the class Let s say we can fit 3,000 tennis balls in the room, we can also fit 2 cars. Are the tennis balls larger than the car because we can fit 3,000 of them in here, but only 2 of the cars? Everyone said No!! and Ohhh I get it now! Students were approaching me during lunch because they were still thinking about the metric system and how it worked. If I taught this lesson again, I would be interested in using more investigative instruction of showing how every unit is 10 times more or less than the units next to it. I think that it would have helped some students with the decimal place issue, provided opportunities for number talks and helped them to think about converting from unit to unit in a more logical way. I would be interested to teach King Henry as a supplement to another way (i.e. Investigations) of teaching the metric system, because it s fun and allows the students to see the metric units in a format that is easy to remember. Subject: Math Grade Level: 5 Topic: The Standard System Time Allotment: 60-80 minutes Teaching Date: Day 2
I. (A) Goal(s): For student to gain conceptual understanding of the standard system and how to convert from one standard unit to another. (B) Instructional Objectives: 1. The student will be able to answer work with a partner to answer questions about the standard system after listening to a song about the standard system. 2. The student will be able to convert from one standard unit of measurement to another standard unit of measurement by working with partners to measure various objects around the classroom. II. Standards: 1. ALEX (5:13): Convert a larger unit of measurement to a smaller unit of measurement within the same customary or metric system. III. Teaching Learning Procedures: Time: 60-80 minutes Activity: The Standard System A. Motivation Introduction (5 minutes): Open up by asking students if they researched interesting facts about the Metric System and the Standard System the night before. Allow students to share things they learned. Ask students if they have ever measured something at home or school, or watched their parents measure something. Hopefully students will say that they have used inches, feet, cups, etc. Then say that today we are going to be learning about the standard system which is the way that we measure length, volume, weight and area. Remind students that they already learned about area during our perimeter lesson, so everyone should know a little bit about the Standard System! Pass out a list of the standard units of measurement. Questions include: 1) What do you know about the standard system? 2.) What is the standard system used for? 3.) What types of things can we measure using the standard system and how can we do it? Say: "Today we will be learning about the standard system. We will begin by doing something a little different than usual. We are going to listen to a rap song about the standard system. Pass out lyrics to the song and a crossword puzzle that goes a long with the standard system song. Instruct students to follow along with the lyrics. Tell them that we will work on the worksheet after we sing the song. B. Teaching/Learning Activities: Play The Standard System rap song from RhythmRhymeResults.com which describes how to convert within the standard system. The song includes a verse for length, area, weight and volume. Students will listen and sing along with the song three times: once with words, once with key
words omitted and once with no words and use the lyrics sheet to follow along. *Song is on CD and will open with ITunes After the song, tell students that they can work with the groups of people around them to answer the crossword puzzle questions. Tell students that the answers can be found in the lyrics to the song, or by using the standard unit of measurement print out that I gave them. There are also questions that relate to the metric system from yesterday s lesson. Put a few questions on the board that involves converting from various standard units. Show students how you can convert from one unit to another by multiplying and dividing. Allow students to help solve problems on the board. Use this time for a number talk. Students will refer to their standard unit of measurement sheet. Next, tell students that they will be using the standard system to measure some things around the room. Tell students that they need a ruler and a pencil. Put students into pairs and pass out graphic organizer. Show students where centimeters, millimeters and inches are on a ruler. C. Closure: Take up student worksheets. Ask students if they have any questions about the standard system of measurement. Play standard system song and let students sing a long one last time. IV. Materials Needed/ Media: The Standard System song from Rhythm,Rhyme,Retain.com with lyrics sheet Computer with speakers Worksheet that accompanies The Standard System song Worksheet that lists the standard system measurement units Graphic organizer Rulers V. Accommodations: For autistic student, allow him to work with partner who will work well with him. For student with broken arm, allow her to work with someone who will be the recorder. For ADHD student, allow him to pass out materials and put him with partner who will not be distracting. VI. Assignments: Units of Conversion Standard and Metric crossword puzzle Graphic organizer for finding various lengths of items around the room VII. Assessment: 1. Informal: Walking around and observing student work; student worksheets. 2. Formal: To be assessed at the end of unit
VIII. Personal Reflection: I thought this lesson went well. The students loved the song and the worksheet that went a long with it really pushed the students to think. This was one of the first times that I had really let go of the reigns so to speak and just let students work freely around the room with partners throughout the entire lesson. I provided little to no teacher instruction beyond directions. This really showed me why the exploratory phase of learning is so important in science and math. There are a few things that I would change before teaching it again. I would be more aware of my time and maybe spread this lesson across two days because I went over on my time. I would add a column to the graphic organizers that allow them to theorize how many feet, inches, centimeters, etc that they think each item will be before actually measuring it. Also, I would have taken time to introduce non-standard units of measurement. This would allow for them to think logically about their measurements before actually conducting them. It would have been good to have given them opportunities to test weight and volume also. It I taught this again I would create graphic organizers for predicting and testing items for length/area, volume and weight and set up centers around the room. Subject: Math Grade Level: 5 Topic: Cartesian plane: Plotting points on x and y axes Time Allotment: 45-60 minutes Teaching Date: Day 2 I. (A) Goal(s): For student to gain conceptual understanding of the Cartesian plane and how to plot points using the x-axis and y-axis. (B) Instructional Objectives: 1. The student will be able to plot points on a Cartesian plane after a short lesson and playing a game of Cartesian battleship. II. Standards: 1. ALEX (5:9) Construct components of the Cartesian plane, including the x- axis, y-axis, origin, and quadrants. III. Teaching Learning Procedures: Time: 45-60 minutes Activity: Cartesian Battleship A. Motivation Introduction: Open up by asking students what they learned the day before during Battleship. Tell students that yesterday when they were playing Battleship they were actually practicing plotting points on a Cartesian or coordinate plane. Questions include: 1) What do you know about plotting points from playing Battleship yesterday?
2.) How can we use coordinate points to guess where your opponent s ship is? 3.) How does the game of Battleship relate to the Cartesian plane? Say: "Today we are going to be learning about how to plot points on a real Cartesian plane. Then we will play Battleship again B. Teaching/Learning Activities: Pass out sheet of graph paper to each student. Put graph paper on the overhead projector and ask the class. What is a Cartesian plane? Wait for student response. Tell class it can also be called a coordinate plane and is used to plot or locate points in a plane. The horizontal axis is called the x-axis, and the vertical axis is called the y-axis. Ask student to tell me where to place my y and x axis. Draw it. Next say that it has 4 quadrants, Quadrant I, II, III, IV-- There are four quadrants created by the intersection of the x- and y-axes. The quadrants are named by Roman numerals; quadrant I is in the upper right corner. The other quadrants follow in a counterclockwise direction. The intersection of the axes is called the origin. Ask students to help you put the quadrants in the right place. Instruct students to draw the coordinate plane with me. Draw x and y axes, emphasizing the origin. Tell students that to the left of the origin on the x-axis are negative numbers, and to the right of the x-axis are positive numbers. Ask student to guide me as I fill in the numbers on the number line. Say Does this remind you of something that you have used before? (Hopefully students will reply that it looks like a number line). Next tell them that the y-axis or vertical part of is formed in a similar way, with the negative numbers going up and the positive numbers going down. Tell students that point are given as ordered pairs, which are just x/y pairs. An ordered pair is always written (x,y). Ask class where I would find the ordered pair (-1,5), then (-2,5), (-3,5) just like in Battleship. Do a few more plotting examples letting students guide me. Make sure everyone has their graphs drawn with x and y axis and coordinates labeled appropriately. Tell students that today we are playing Battleship with our new Cartesian plane. Tell students that each point on a square represents a coordinate pair. Tell students that yesterday when we played Battleship a full square represented a hit say Well, today in order to get a hit you must hit all four corners of a square. How do we do this? (Wait for answers). Show example on projector of a ship and let class help me sink it. Ask class How many coordinate pairs will I have if I take down a ship that looks like this? (Draw ship that covers two squares then draw one that covers three squares and ask how many coordinate pairs I will have.) Remind class that it will take a lot longer to sink a ship today since there are four points on each square, so take this into consideration when making your ships.
Show students a graphic organizer that they should draw on a separate sheet of paper in order to keep score. Let students get into groups with students from the day before. C. Closure: Pass out worksheet with coordinate plane questions for assessing what students learned. Tell students to complete the worksheet. Ask class what they learned about coordinate planes from playing Battleship. IV. Materials Needed/ Media: Graph paper Overheard projector Worksheet for assessment at the end V. Accommodations: For student with behavioral problems, allow him to work with student who will work well with him. For student with ADHD allow him to work with a student who will not be distracting. Provide extra assistance to autistic student. VI. Assignments: Cartesian Battleship game. Students will turn in their game grid and their score chart. Cartesian plane worksheet, to be given after students finish their game. VII. Assessment: 1. Informal: Walking around and observing student work; student worksheets. 2. Formal: To be assessed at the end of unit VIII. Personal Reflection: Overall students enjoyed playing this game and could already relate to it from playing Battleship at home. If I were to teach this again I would make sure to be more aware of student inquiry and focus more on probing student inquiry. All in all it was a good lesson and students were asking to play Cartesian Battleship the next day!