Lesson 4: estimation/math

Objectives:

Materials:

• Pueblo Boy Growing Up in Two Worlds by Marcia Keegan
• 27 sm. bags popped popcorn
• paper towels
• oil
• popcorn popper
• 2 cups unpopped popcorn
• popcorn estimation worksheet
• 4 long strips of butcher paper
• marker
• rulers
• yarn
• 3 strips of paper for bar graph
• graph for distance
• chart with 4 squares (label North, South, East, West)
• large paper with popcorn kernel
• tape
• 4 white popcorn shapes

Procedure:

1. Read Pueblo Boy Growing Up in Two Worlds by Marcia Keegan.
2. After pg. 9, discuss similarities between Timmy's life and the students' lives (Going to school, working on computers, riding bikes, fishing).
3. Read the rest of the book. Ask students why they think corn is so important to Timmy's clan. Why do they have a Corn Dance?
4. Ask some ways we eat corn (cooked kernels, corn on the cob, popcorn). Explain that we are going to estimate with popcorn and measure how far popcorn pops.
5. Demonstrate to students that they are to take a handful of popcorn from the bag and estimate how many pieces they are holding. Write down the estimation. Count the pieces of popcorn and write down the number. Repeat the process two more times. Remind the students that an estimation is a guess and should probably not match the exact number. Write at the bottom of the page if your estimation got closer and why you think it did.
6. Hand out an estimation worksheet, a paper towel, and a small bag of popcorn to each student and let them complete the estimation.
7. Put four large sheets of butcher paper on the floor in the middle of the room. With a marker, divide the paper into four squares. Place the popcorn popper in the middle of the paper.
8. Show the students a ruler and review inches. Explain the length of one ruler is one foot, two rulers-two feet, etc. Have students estimate (predict) the farthest distance the popcorn will pop. Write their names and their estimates in feet or inches on the kernel paper.
9. Have the students stand around all sides of the paper on the floor and begin popping popcorn. Let the popcorn land where ever it falls.
10. While the oil is heating, have the class estimate how many popped pieces will fit in a half cup, then count. Estimate how many unpopped pieces will fit in a half cup. Count only up to the actual number of popped pieces. Have students conclude popcorn expands when it pops.
11. Have the students choose by sight the 3 pieces they think are the farthest away from the popper. Measure with a piece of yarn to determine which is the farthest.
12. Fold the same piece of yarn in half to find the midpoint. Have students try to find which piece is that distance.
13. Have the students determine and measure with yarn the piece that is the closest to the popper.
14. With all three pieces of yarn, lay the yarn on the strip of bar graph paper and cut the paper to that length. Have the students work in three groups to measure the paper with a ruler to find the actual distance. Tape the three bar graph papers onto the bar graph. Write the actual distance on the graph.
15. Divide the students into four groups. Have each group count the popcorn pieces in one of the four squares on the floor. Write the number on a popcorn shape paper and tape on the four square chart. Use the directions North, South, East, and West to determine which square they should put their number in.

Evaluation of student learning:

Reflection:

My fall advisor watched most of this lesson and she thought I organized the lesson well and asked good questions during and after reading the book. The concern she discussed with me was mixing feet and inches while measuring. She thought some of the students may not understand the two concepts together and suggested measuring in inches only.