Jenny's Elementary Math
Lesson
Spot Can Count
By Eric Hill
Summary of the
book:
Spot says, "Dad I can count from one
to ten." "Good boy," Dad says. "See what you can count on
the farm." On the farm, when Spot sees one mouse nibbling grain he starts
counting. He counts squirrels in the tree, horses in the stable, ducks in the
pond, pigs in the sty, hens in the yard, geese, rabbits in the garden, sheep
in the field, and black and white cows in the barn. As you count along with
Spot, you lift the flaps to the answers and surprise comments from a funny bird,
the barn cat, a little green frog at the pond and other new friends.
Grade level: Kindergarten
Math Concepts: counting,
adding, part/whole
Lesson Plan:
1. Introduce book to the students.
2. Read the book in the classroom.
3. Explain the concepts in the book.
4. Ask relevent questions about the concepts
to make sure that the students grasp the lesson.
5. Complete activities listed below.
Integrated Acitivities:
- Visual Aid for Math: Make a felt board
and cut out the appropriate number of animals in the story. Place all of the
animals on the felt board in a random arrangement. Ask the children to look
at the "whole" picture and "count" the animals ("add"
the animals together). Now ask the students to arrange the animals by type
and "count" the "part" of the "whole" that each
animal represents.
- Math: Have the students count the number
of peers in their class, add them up, and explain that that number is the
"whole." Then have the students count the number of boys or "part"
and the number of girls, the other "part."
- Language Arts and Art: Have the students
create their own counting story that has some kind of theme. For example,
make a story about counting differnt animals in the sea (such as octopus,
whales, fish, seastars, dolphins, sharks). Have them work on their story and
then add pictures with color.
- Music: Find counting songs, such as
"One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians." Have the students
count on their hands and have visual objects for the students to more easily
grasp the concept.
- Social Studies: Learn to count to ten
in a few other languages such as Spanish, French, African, etc.
- History: Learn about a few famous mathematicians
and the countries that they are from.
- Science: Use the numbers of one to ten
to count scientifically. For example, count the number of petals on certain
flowers, the number of body parts and legs on insects, the number of fingers
and toes one people, the number of days in a week, the number of seasons in
the year, etc.
- Exploration: As a fun outing, take a
field trip to the zoo or a local park. Count the number of animals that the
students see and record the information for later. When the students return
to the classroom, display the observations and let them draw a story of what
they saw and how many of each animal. Make them write the number of animals
under each picture.
For additional math lesson ideas using childrens'
literature:
Elaine
Young's Math Literature Page
To but the book online:
Amazon.com
or
MSN
EShop