Vitruvian Self

Lesson Instructions Rationale, Timing, and Background:These lessons work for the start of the year toward skill acquisition for the performance goals of the Next Generation Science Standards, and the associated CCSS math standards.  We begin our Journey with Leonardo da Vinci, our very own STEAM engine, who personified the cross-pollination of the mind, embodying the […]

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Storm Tracker

Lesson Instructions  Introduce students to what a Meteoroligist is and how they use sophisticated models to predict the occurence, duration and trajectory of weather events. Explain to students that meterologists build their models based on observations they have made in the past and by understanding how previous weather patterns evolved, meterologists can apply that knowledge […]

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A Fraction of a Paycheck

Authentic & Meaningful: To ensure authenticity it is important for students to realize that this is in fact an actual real life financial literacy situation in which money comes in and must be aware of where and how much money goes out. It is tapping in to something that all of my students whether ELL , SPED, or General Ed can relate to which is money. It transcends around the world. All students are aware of money and the basics of such, therefore not much preteaching of the amount of money is needed. Linked to Objective: I want students to see that equivalent fractions and comparing fractions is something that is useful beyond the classroom. I want them to be aware that in real world area is something that is a skill that can be used for common things such as money. Promotes Engagement: Students will be engaged as they see this as more of a humanitarian social issue at the beginning, but also the problem solving of determining money.

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Math Talks and Word Problems

Lesson Instructions Lesson Plan   Class: Date: 11/2/17 Unit: Math Lesson Title: Number Talks, Word Problem (Addition & Subtraction), Small Groups Content Standard Alignment: 1.OA.A.1 – Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., […]

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Making Money in Education

Who says you can’t make money teaching? Each year I use a token economy as a system to encourage students to help in the classroom with attitude and work, and in the first day of school we make coins out of homemade dough with ¾” PVC to roll stamp them out with. It’s nice to have some textures to press in the dough, too. That’s what I call rolling in the dough! Or, at least, rolling it out.
In preparation you can read “The Story of Money” by Betsy Maestro, which actually can take a couple of hours to get through orally, or you can give a brief history of money from Wikipedia or this nice concise version from PBS. Any of these can also be read or introduced during the making of the money. The idea, though, of working together on a physical task, is that it allows conversation to happen, and we are the people who also teach how to be a person.

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Fruit Salad Fractions

Essential Question- How are fractions used?

Lesson Summary
Students will each receive a quantity of fruit that will be used to create a fruit salad. Students will be given specific directions on how to divide their fruit in to 2, 3, or 4 equal pieces, depending on what type of fruit it is. Once students successfully assemble their fruit salad, they will be able to eat it!

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Everything Filled

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

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