Temperature

Grade:4

*I taught this lesson on temperature during my student teaching internship.

1. Use the big thermometer to review and teach how to read temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Make sure to discuss common temperatures such as room temperature, boiling point of water, and freezing point of water. Compare and contrast between the two readings.

2. Give each student a copy of the worksheet and guide them through completing the first couple together, measuring the temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Have the students complete the rest of the problems on their own.

Mini Metric System Unit

Grade: 4

*This is a mini introductory unit about the metric system that I taught over a week span to fourth grade students during my student teaching internship.

Start by introducing and discussing the prefix milli-, centi-, deci-, and kilo-. For each of the activities below, keep figuring the conversions of how many of each unit is in another unit.

Second, introduce the meter and units of the meter. Give the students a toothpick, small ring, short straw, ribbon, and meter measuring device. Have the students measure the items, finding the item that is closest to a millimeter (width of end of toothpick), centimeter (width of ring), decimeter (length of straw), and meter (ribbon).

Third, introduce the gram and units of the gram. Pass around the jar of beans (kilogram) and the paper clip (gram) let the students feel the difference in weight.

Lastly, introduce the liter and units of the liter. Put a drop of water next to the liter water bottle so that students can visually compare the liter to milliliter.

As a challenge, discuss cubic measurements in the metric system. Give the students base ten blocks, and let them measure the cubic area of the units piece (it’s one cubic centimeter). Then let them measure and experiment with finding out how many cubic centimeters is in a cubic decimeter (the thousand cube).

Amazing Animal Height

Grades:1-6

*This is a lesson I taught to first through sixth grade students as part of a weeklong science camp.

1. Make long strips of bulletin board paper as tall as the following animals: (write the name of the animal, height, and where they live on each strip of paper)

• Bottlenose Dolphins = 9 ft. (warm tropical waters)
• Giraffe = 17 ft. (African Savannah)
• Python = 6 ft. (Western Africa)
• Monitor Crocodile = 7 ft. (New Guinea)
• Emu = 6 ft. (Australia)
• Siberian Tiger = 12 ft long from nose to tail (Mountains in Northern Russia)

2. Have each student measure how tall he or she is – have them record this height on the worksheet.

3. Allow students to lie down next to each animal (paper strips), comparing and contrasting the differences in height.

4. Have the students use measuring tapes to measure each animal (paper strip) and record the height on their worksheet (Math Integration).

5. As the students are circulating among the animals, have them read on the paper where each animals lives. Have them find this location on the classroom map (Geography Integration).

6. On the back of the worksheet, have students write the animals in order from shortest to tallest, including themselves.

7. Have each student draw and label a bar graph showing the comparison of the size of these animals (Math Integration).