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Notes for Teachers

This lesson takes place in a classroom for one or more hours.
Students may start in a whole group setting and then break into small groups to work in groups of 4-6 for small engagements.
Creative habitats will be designed and explored through math and science.
Facilitate students as they reference counting up and down as apples fall and balance.

List of Materials:

Real apples
Apple pictures
Obstacle Course

sticks
rocks
bricks

Stem building

apples
balloons filled with flour
playdough balls

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Arizona Science Standards

Science ECE Standards:

Science Standards:

AZELS STRAND 1: COUNTING AND CARDINALITY Concept 1 A,B

STRAND 2: OPERATIONS AND ALGEBRAIC THINKING Concept 1: Explores Addition and Subtraction A,B,C,D,E

AZELS SCIENCE STRAND 2: OPERATIONS AND ALGEBRAIC THINKING Concept 1 A,B,C,D

Science and engineering practices

construct design
engage with others in inquiry
construct reasoning and information obtained displayed during play
peer learning
balancing
adding and subtracting

Arizona ELA Standards

K.RL.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

K.RL.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

K.RL.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. Craft and Structure K.RL.4 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

K.RL.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

K.RL.9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

K.RL.10 With prompting and support, actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding

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Objectives:

Today we will explain how the apples are changing numbers.

Today we will describe a stack of apples.

Today we will collaborate and communicate effectively with our peers to complete an engineering design challenge.

Today students will be able to design and engineer a tower of multiple types of materials to reinforce their knowledge of Apples adding and subtracting in the story.

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Agenda (60 minutes)

What is on top?

Count apples in basket

Read story

STEM obstacle course with apples on top

Math roll dice and draw corresponding apples on top of character

STEM build/stack apples, balls of playdough or balloon apples to see how many we can balance.

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How many apples are on top?

Start out by counting apples in basket, what happens if we eat one? Or if we share with a friend?

Read aloud the story and have students place their number in the story with fingers on their head.

Then break into 3 groups to try three different small groups of activities.

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Counting and STEM

Show the number corresponding with STEM activity.

Have students work together and build peer social skills.

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Read-Aloud

Have the characters laid out and have students place real apples or photos of apples during the read aloud.

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Group 1

Have students navigate their way through an obstacle course with an apple held or balanced on their head.

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Group 2

STEM Apple Stack

In a group of 4-6 students, let’s design a how many on top tower.

Set out materials and see students working together to design a tower or two that balances, see if they can label how many are balancing.

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Group 3

Let students explore with building a stack of apples on top of their head with a material that molds much better than an actual apple.

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How do we assess our work?

We see if students can change number of apples.
We see who’s using new language.
Who can design a tower and label number of apples on top.
Who engages with text with new inquiry skills?
We iterate and repeat what we see and how it connects to math and science.
Closure includes drawing a picture of your number rolled and apples drawn on top of picture.

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Assessment

Test your counting.

Is it accurate.
Does it change?
Can we add more?
What happens if some fall?

ELA Assessment

How do these animals teach us about math? Science?

Describe in detail how the the apples were changing numbers?

Describe how the apples fell down?

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Differentiation

Providing a range of materials to show knowledge of numbers and balance will include all levels of learners.

Extension/Enrichment

Students who are successful right away can play with peers and interact in the towers and numbers to help them understand.