“Two Old Potatoes and Me” Literature and Vocabulary Project

This activity will involve the use of the book,“Two Old Potatoes and Me”. This books was written by John Coy and Illustrated by Carolyn Fisher.

Rationale: I chose this book because it helps to teach students that old things can sometimes be used to create new things. The potatoes that the little girl thought were garbage, weren’t actually garbage. When planted in the ground the potato produced new potato plants! This project will incorporate reusing and recycling. This book also uses a concept that kids are very familiar with, food! We will end our book study by attempting to grow our own potato plants.

Materials Required:

• “Two Old Potatoes and Me” Book
• White Board and White Board Markers (or other writing space)
• A sprouted potatoes for demonstration
• Sprouted potatoes cut into chucks
• Large planting containers
• Soil
• Water
• Popsicle Sticks

New Vocabulary

The students will have a chance to identify words that they don’t know. Here are the words that I would make sure to cover. 

• Sprout (a small plant that grows out of the potato. When planted it will grow a full potato plant!)
• Potato “eyes” (The small circles in the potato that the sprouts grow out of.)
• Compost ( leftover food that is used to feed the plants)
• Sprayed (to cover or sprinkle something on someone)
• Weeded (picking the “bad” plants out of the ground. This plants make it harder for the good plants to grow.)

Instructional Strategy #1

• The teacher will ask the students to share with the class words that they didn’t understand.
• As a class we will create a definition of that word. The teacher can ask questions such as, “Does anyone know what this is?” or “Has anyone done this before?”
• Once the class comes up with a definition the teacher will write the definition and draw a picture next to it out the board.

Instructional Strategy #2

• Class will learn the new words through movement and demonstration!
• First as a class we would brainstorm how to plant a potato (put potato in dirt, push dirt down, water it, etc.)
• After we create a list we will act out the list as a class. The teacher should help the students create actions.
• After acting the teacher will show the class a labeled potato with the other strange words (words labeled should be- potato, eye, and sprout)
• The students can pass around the potato and practice saying the labeled words.

Additional Lesson:

After the literacy lesson is complete or on a different day in the week, the students will have a chance to grow their own potato plants in small groups. The plants will be kept in the window and everyday the new class gardner will be in charge of watering the plants.

Citation:

I created the additional activities for this lesson and would be happy to answer any questions you may have!

 

 

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Centers

Today I have two different centers to share with you! . I have a math lesson that practices geometry through puzzles! I also have a literacy center that focuses on key words and categorizing objects

 

Math Center: Puzzles made from a reusable material, cardboard! 

Rationale: Puzzles are a great way to help students review shapes and learn how to fit pieces together. By using the cardboard from food boxes, I’m showing the students that this material can have more than one purpose.

Materials:

• Cardboard (recycled cereal or waffle boxes work well)
• Scissors
• Painter’s tape (optional, but can be used to create a border around the puzzles. This could make the activity easier for students.)
• Plastic Bags (for puzzle pieces)

Motivation: Good Afternoon Class! This week we have been studying the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. We are going to continue with that theme in our centers today! For our math center you will have a chance to build a puzzle. All the puzzles were made from recycled cardboard boxes. Have you seen any of these boxes before? We are going to reuse these boxes in a new way!

Steps:

1. When setting up this center make sure that each puzzle is in a plastic bag. The teacher may also want to premake puzzle borders using painter’s tape.
2. When students arrive at the center they will choose a bag and start building the puzzle.
3. Once the students finishes a puzzle they should return all of the pieces to the plastic bag.
4. If time remains they can try another puzzle!

 

Literacy Center: Categories

 

Rationale: In this center there will be four different bags. Each bag is labeled with a different type of material that is recyclable. The whole class will have a chance to read the labels before this center begins. In this center the students have to read the labels and then put the different objects in the correct bag. The purpose of this center is to allow students a chance to read keywords. Students will also get to practice categorizing objects, which should help with learning vocabulary.

Materials:

• Four Labels (one for each material)
• Recyclable materials (I used cardboard, plastic, cans, and paper)
• Paper/ Reuseable bags (four)

Motivation:

Since we have been studying recycling, this center will let you put your skills to the test! Are you ready for a challenge? We have four different recyclable materials. Let’s read these four words together!

Steps:

1. Students choose one material and decide which bag it should go in.
2. Student will then place the material in that bag.
3. The group should continue this until all the materials are in one of the four bags.
4. Once the group is done, the teacher will come and check the bags. The teacher can help the students if they made any mistakes.

 

Recycling Song Chart

Song: Recycling Song

Author: Shannon Martin

Rationale:

• Students will be able to practice letter recognition.
• Students will be able to practice recognizing word repetition.
• Students will be able to notice rhyming in the song.

Materials

• Poster Board with poem
• White Board
• White Board Markers
• List of Questions

Project Instructions

1. Teacher should sing song to class one time through.
2. The teacher should then ask the following questions about the song.
   • Did you notice any repeating words in this song? (students should come up and point out words. The teacher should write these words on the board)
   • After each repeating word is found the teacher should have this follow-up question: What letter does this repeating word start with? Can anyone point out other words that start with this letter? 
   • Do you notice any rhyming words in this song? 
3. After the teacher is done asking questions the class should get the opportunity to sing the song. The teacher should teach the first verse through call and response.
4. After the activity is completed put the chart in the literacy center along with bottles, paper, cans, and plastics. The students can practice labeling these objects.

Motivation: This song incorporates the unit theme while also using literary elements such as repetition and rhyme. This song also gives students specific examples of common items that they can recycle. I hope that this song will help remind students to recycle as often as possible!

Bibliography: I found this song on Pinterest from the website teachjunkie.com. You can find this site here. However; this song with originally published on http://kinder-pond.blogspot.com/ and was written by Shannon Martin.

 

 

 

Recycling Math Lesson

 

Objective: The purpose of this lesson is to have students practice number recognition and number grouping. By using different objects as containers students are able to see that products can have more than one use. For example a water bottle can be used for more than just holding water!

 

Materials

• 10-15 different sized containers
• Small reusable pieces such as marbles, paper clips or colored counters
• Construction Paper
• Tape
• Markers

Motivation: 

Today we are going to create a game for the rest of our class to play! Did anyone notice that we have some strange containers here today? What do you see? Since we have been studying recycling this week, I’ve recycled some containers from home to use for our game. In this game we will get to practice numbers and test your classmates! Please get into your partner group and decide on a number between 1 and 9.

Steps:

1. Students should first be broken up into pairs.
2. Each pair should select a container and construction paper label.
3. Each pair will decide a number between 1-9 and write the number on their label.
4. The teacher will walk around taping the labels to the containers
5. Each student is given 20 counters to play the game with.
6. Students walk around the room and place the correct amount of counters in different containers.
7. After 10 minutes each pair should return to their game to count all of the pieces.
8. Each pair should practice grouping the counters as they count. For example if their number was two, students should create multiple groups of twos.
9. The teacher should ask students questions about their results. Who had the most? How about the least? Did anyone have 5 groups, 4 groups, 3 groups. etc.
10. At the end of the activity the containers can be placed at the math center for further exploration.

Bibliographic Data:

I created the rules for this activity, but the orginal idea was found here

http://theimaginationtree.com/2013/03/sort-and-count-maths-bottles.html