Grade Level: 6

Subject(s):
Mathematics/Patterns
Language Arts/Literature/Children's Literature

Duration: 45 minutes

Description: Students use the problem solving strategy of "find a pattern" to predict the number of grains of rice Rani (from One Grain of Rice ) will receive after 30 days. Students use a table to assist with making predictions.

Goals: Apply guess and check, find a pattern, draw a diagram, and other problem solving strategies to develop inductive and deductive thinking. Students will algebraically represent, model, analyze, and solve mathematical and real world problems involving patterns and functional relationships.

Objectives: Students will be able to:
                   1. apply find a pattern and make-a-table strategies in order to solve problems.
                   2. record data from an Indian folktale.
                   3. explore, describe, and extend patterns.
                   4. make a generalization about a pattern.

Teacher Materials:

One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi
overhead projector with markers
transparency of table worksheet
rice - a small handful

 Student Materials:

pencil
table worksheet
Worksheet in .pdf format; requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
calculators - one for each student or pair of students

Vocabulary: patterns, table
Story Vocabulary: Rani - girl's name in the story, raja - Indian king, famine - extreme lack of something

Procedure:
Explain the objectives of the lesson, and then begin reading One Grain of Rice . [Brief summary of story: During a famine, Rani outsmarts the raja by asking him to give her one grain of rice to be doubled every day, for 30 days.]

Discuss book vocabulary as it comes up in the reading. Show one grain of rice on the overhead, then two, four, and eight… Stop at the ninth day in the story. Revisit the objective by asking, "What are we doing today and how?"

Ask students, "What is a pattern?" (A list that occurs in some predictable way.) Pass out the table worksheets and have students fill in the table, stopping at the ninth day. Ask students to share any patterns that they notice. Most likely, students will say that the pattern doubles every day. Students will predict how many grains of rice Rani will receive in all after the 30th day. In pairs, students will complete the rest of the table. (Calculators will be needed, as numbers get into the millions.) As students are working, ask if anyone can find an easier way to calculate the next day's rice count without adding. (Usually someone notices that you can multiply by 2.) Tell students to complete the table using this new pattern. (Students should fill in the table faster now.) After the tables are completed, ask for students' predictions for the number of grains of rice on the 30th day. Finish reading the story to see if students' calculations were correct. As you read the story, students should check their answers with the story to make sure that they calculated correctly.

Assessment: Independently, students will answer the following questions:
1. Find out how many grains of rice Rani received in all. Explain how you got your answer. (1,073,741,823 -  more than 1     billion grains of rice)
2. What do you notice about the grains of rice received each day? Describe the pattern you see in the table. (doubles or "times 2")
 
 

Grade Level(s): 3, 4, 5, 6

Subject(s): Science/Animals

Duration: One 45 minute lesson

Description: Students create a paper moth that is camouflaged with something in the classroom. A partner class sends in "birds" to try to find them.

Goals: Students will understand that animals have adaptations that aid in their survival.

Objectives:
Students will identify examples of camouflage in our natural world.
Students will create a moth and camouflage it with some area of the classroom.

Materials: paper outlines of a moth shape and student supplied coloring utensils, Science For You (ITV show).

Procedure: Discuss their prior knowledge of camouflage. Using a video is a great visual aid for specific examples of camouflage in our natural world. I use a "Science for You" (ITV show) segment called - "Why do zebras have stripes?"

Based on how much prior knowledge they have, this introduction can be varied to fit individual needs. Show students the paper moth shape and explain they must cut it out and color it to blend in with an area in the room. Rules are it has to be easily visible from the center of the room. (NO hiding it under or behind something) Explain that in 10 minutes some "birds" from another class are coming to "eat" your moths. Students use masking tape on the back of the moth to attach it to the position they chose. Partner class "birds" are told the shape of the moth and the rules before they begin searching.

Assessment: Any survivors are taken down one at a time so that the "birds" also learn what they missed. Birds are rewarded. Assessment is as simple as placing "surviving" moths on a tagboard for display. Discussion to follow.
 
 

Description:

How many of us have a Thomas Jefferson, a Queen Elizabeth, or a Sacajawea in our family's past that we were never aware of? Imagine the deep emotion of finding your great- grandfather's baptism record in an old rural church, after months of searching and much frustration. Or consider the feelings experienced when you see your great-great-grandmother's name on a passenger log of ships bringing
immigrants to America in the 1830's.

Each of these experiences binds us to our history and to the history of our nation. Sometimes the more personal the moment the more meaningful it becomes when inserted into the larger history of an area, a state, or a country. Answers to the historical why's, who's and when's can be seen in the personal histories of families. As students of history share their family stories there is an awareness created of how interconnected many of us are, and of how the history of a nation and of its people is reflected in their stories.

Family trees are not only excellent opportunities for students to learn their personal histories and to use some of the investigative tools of the historian. Family trees can also be valuable resources in teaching mini-history lessons in the classroom and for helping students to make broader generalizations about the history of their community, their state and their country.

Grade Level(s): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Subject(s):

Social Studies/History
Social Studies/Genealogy

Goal:

The purpose of this package is to provide sample lessons that incorporate personal family trees into the larger context of community, state, and national histories.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

1.Locate on a map of the appropriate continents, the country or countries, and where possible, the region or city, from which their family originated before coming to the United States.
2.Describe in oral presentation their family's history leading to their settlement in their present community and state.
3.Locate on a map of the United States those primary states and communities in which their families settled upon first arriving in the United States and major family moves since that arrival.
4.Using appropriate information, identify the primary time frames in which families settled in a particular state or community.
5.Using appropriate information, identify the primary social and economic forces that motivated settlement of a particular state or community.
6.Identify local, state, and national organizations (a minimum of one resource for each) that are available to help persons interested in developing a more complete family history.

Materials:

Mormon Family History Library

Genealogical Department
Dept P
35 N. West Temple St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-0001

The National Genealogical Society
Education Division
4527 Seventeenth St. North
Arlington, VA 22207-2399

The National Archives
Reference Service Branch
Washington, DC 20408-0001

Procedure:
 

1.Each student should bring to class as complete a family history as possible which includes the following information: Name (maiden), date of birth, place of birth, year in which earliest known family member came to the United States, purpose of immigration, year earliest known family member relocated into current community and state, reason for relocation, and any major relocations by previous generation within the U.S. and the reasons for these relocations.

2.Have students "interview" one of their grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, or uncles, or if none of these are possible, one of their parents. Their purpose in the interview should be to obtain an oral history of that family member's family with particular attention to the information noted in #1, above. The interviewer should also ask if there were any "colorful" or perhaps famous people in the family's past. Sometimes these talks open up communication lines never before explored within the family. Often students learn about
famous and infamous people in their family's past. These are the stories students love to tell when sharing their family history with their classmates, and it's often these stories that light a fire under the student and make them "want" to continue with and be more thorough in assignment #1.

3.Have each student give an oral presentation of their family tree. It helps if the teacher goes first, thus establishing a more non-threatening situation. It is important to stress that this is a sharing time, not just an assignment for a grade. Some students will be reluctant to give an oral presentation. Don't pressure them.

4.Some students will want to know how they can learn more about their families. Have them write letters to the organizations listed under resources. If you live in metropolitan centers with access to large university or research libraries or to federal repositories encourage them to visit these and use their materials.