A Lesson Plan for Miss Fox’s Class Earns a Field Trip
Theme:
The theme of this book is earning and saving money for a fieldtrip. Setbacks along the way provide many opportunities for addition and subtraction and for counting dollars and cents. The book also urges students to communicate and share their understanding of money.
CCSS
1.NBT.4. Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
2.NBT.5. Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
2.NBT.6. Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.
NCTM Standards: K–3 Expectations
The Number and Operations Standard states that in kindergarten through grade 3 all students should:
• understand the effects of adding and subtracting whole numbers;
• develop and use strategies for whole-number computations, with a focus on addition and subtraction;
• use a variety of methods and tools to compute, including objects, mental computation;
• use multiple models to develop initial understandings of place value and the base-ten number system;
The communications standard states that instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to
• organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication;
• communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others;
Teacher notes:
From the NCTM Standards on number sense and communication:
Concrete models can help students represent numbers and develop flexibility in thinking about numbers, which is a hallmark of number sense.
Language, whether used to express ideas or to receive them, is a very powerful tool and should be used to foster the learning of mathematics. Communicating about mathematical ideas is a way for students to articulate, clarify, organize, and consolidate their thinking.
Lesson Plan 1 for grade levels K-3
New words:
dollar sign; decimal point
You will need:
• A copy of the book
• Jars similar to Miss Fox’s jar to save bills and coins
• A stash play of money for several groups of children equal to the needs for the trip, both bills and coins
• A display board to write Squirrel’s calculations
• Paper and pencils for the children to write their money calculations.
Anticipatory Set and Objective:
Tell children you will read them a story about a class that wants to save money to take a great field trip. Ask if they save money. Tell them that the animal children in the story are going to save coins and bills. Let them communicate and discuss their knowledge about which bills and coins are more valuable.
Input:
Read the story. Pause to count the money Miss Fox’s class has accumulated and then subtract what they have lost. When you get to the page where Squirrel does the math, write his calculations for everyone to see. Indicate the dollar sign and the decimal point. Discuss the idea that everything on the left of the point is dollars but everything on the right is cents or parts of a dollar.
Modeling:
Place the children in small groups depending on class size, tables, etc. Give each group a jar and play money. Read the story again and have them add money or subtract it from the jar as the story progresses. Ask them to write their calculations each time they add or subtract.
Check Understanding:
Tell the children that you are going to give each group a bit more money. They must reach into your jar of money and, without looking, pull out three bills and two coins. When they see what they have drawn from your jar, they must select one bill and one coin to return to you and then subtract that money from what they had taken. Now have them add the money they have to their jar and write the calculation so that they know how much money they have.
Independent Practice:
Change the amount of money in each jar and ask them to count the amount of money their jar.