Grade: Elementary
Subject: other

#2016. Foot Theme - Compilation of lessons and activities

other, level: Elementary
Posted Fri Nov 17 18:01:39 PST 2000 by Kathleen Carpenter on behalf of mailring & chatboard posters ().
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Teachers.Net,

The Foot Book-Dr. Seuss
Children trace one foot on construction paper (provide an assortment of colors from which to choose), cut it out and write name on front. Display as "Meet Our Feet."

Book: I Went Walking by Sue Williams http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0152380116/teachersnet has a farm theme, with pattern similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Make an innovation on chart or class book. Make an innovation (book) based upon a walk around the school.

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe-Make a class book in shape of foot or boot on a topic such as, Where I wish I could walk or My feet like to walk to....

Animal tracks-study animal tracks in the snow (The Mitten could fit in here). Make painted human foot prints on paper. Obtain rubber animal paws and press into dough or clay. Display with name and picture of the animal.

This Little Piggy Went to Market-Do an innovation having the little piggies go other places, could be a class book collage of footwear (cut from magazines, draw from reference books, collect from families and community), can get into multicultural and historical aspects-what people wear on their feet in different parts of the world. Relate that to environment, weather, seasons, geography, gender, etc.

Class Book/s: Places I can walk to, Places I cannot walk to

Other modes of transportation

OKAY, YOUR TURN :o)

Kathleen

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Don't forget to include Kim's kid-made Foot book http://www.foresitecom.com/kindernet/classbooks7.html
Britt/K/PA
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posted by Cindy:

Books: Shoes by Elizabeth Winthrop, also Goody New Shoes (can't remember the author, Four Fur Feet (again, can't remember)

Shoe Graph- Kids all take off one shoe, make a class graph by type( buckle, velcro, lace, etc.)or by color, or any other attribute

Shoe Store - Set up a shoe store in the House area with different types of shoes, shoe boxes, homemade size charts,etc.

Sensory Walk - On long strip of poster paper, set up a path with different textures to walk on. Start with sand, move to hay or grass, then to cotton, then to paint or pudding to make footprints, then to shaving cream, and finally to water. Don't even attempt this one without several helpers to hold hands while walking. PS Go potty first! Use footprint section of the paper for a mural.

Shoe tying Station - A large lace up shoe glued to a board. Let kids practice.

Art - Use various real baby or doll shoes to do printing with paint.

Make sock puppets.
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Posted by Amy to the Building Blocks mailring (http:/teachers.net/mailrings)

use the traced feet as a non-standard unit of measurement and have the kids measure things in the room...OR have them find things longer, shorter, or the same size as their own foot
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From Fran:

A few ideas that come to mind:
Story: Rosie's Walk...Map her walk and label with the things that she saw.


Story: The Elves and the Shoemaker

a. Compare different types of shoes. When would you wear each? What might happen if you wore them at an inappropriate time, for example, if you wore ballet shoes to play soccer, etc.
b. Concept of 'pair'. What else comes in pairs?
c. Trace and cut out feet. Compare sizes (longer, shorter, wider, the same, etc.)
d. Graph the kinds of shoes the class is wearing.
e. In discussing story--how did the elves help the shoemaker? How did the shoemaker and his wife help the elves? Extend discussion: How can we help others less fortunate (a good discussion at this time of the year especially.
f. Introduce the sh sound (shoe), the /f/ sound (feet)
g. How many feet are in our classroom?

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From Vickie:

One of my kiddos favorites is to use plastic animals (small & large) to paint -- choose ones with distinctive feet & children can later review which was used for which prints.

Follow cut-out footprints through an obstacle course.

Compare sizes of feet/shoes within the class.
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Foot Theme
Find a few books with shoes in them---Cinderella, Wizard of Oz, ..... and compare the use of the shoe

Get 4 old shoes from your closet, graph the children's guesses as to which one will go furthermost when thrown. Go outside and test. Review results of predictions

Use the same 4 shoes and have the children decide what type of activity you do in those shoes. Make up a story about when you wore those shoes. What was the weather when they were worn, what stockings did you wear with the shoes......

Have the children make a prediction as to how many shoes are in their closet at home. Homework: count the shoes in closet. Come back and compare numbers. Was their original guess an even number? Brainstorm why is it? Put all feet in the center of learning circle and count by twos.

During circle time teacher picks out all children that have buckle shoes (don't tell them) and they stand up. Have the children guess what each child has in common. Do the same with brown shoes, rubber sole shoes, white shoe laces,..... Finding common attribute is a fine characteristic to build.

brainstorm all the different types of shoes, write an emergent reader:
Sue has boots.
John has sneakers.
Valeria has loafers.
Jorge has soccer cleats.
Mrs. W has heels.
Grace has sandals.
Don has high tops.
Dad has steel toes work boots........
Beside each paste a picture of that type of shoe---find a Sears magazine!
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How Big is A Foot? forgot author's name. I use this when introducing standard measurement. Children make a construction paper tracing of foot, cut it out and measure the same items. Leads to a better understanding of need for standard measurement.

Animal Tracks - just did this. Students loved it and came out great! Read Big Book of Animal Tracks by Arthur Dorros. Made copies of animal tracks. Students took one track put it on white paper with title Whose Track is This? Underneath on another paper they wrote the animal name and a sentence about the animal.

Tammy/CT/2
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I saw this idea recently in a Scholastic resource book- make FOOT BOOKS by writing a class story on sentence strips or large strips of paper. The author had created a class book based on One Potato, Two Potato - one foot, one apple etc. The students sequence the story on the floor and then place foot prints next to each strip. The idea is for them to 'read the strip' as they "walk" the story. I thought this was a really neat way to use a predictable chart and literacy centers.
Elaine

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How about the book HOW BIG IS A FOOT. Not sure right now about the author. This is the story of the king who wanted to make a bed for the queen.He measured the bed and had an apprentice make the bed. The apprentice feet were smaller and the bed was to small. After reading this I gave the students feet and they measured each other to see how big their bed would be. We measures length, width and circumferance.
Cathy/K

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deb smith sent:

FEET

I. Whose Shoe? written by Margaret Miller Shoes written by Elizabeth Winthrop

Classification
Sort shoes by categories:
buckle --- no buckle
white --- black
heel --- no heel

Compare and Contrast Shoe Rubbings
Hold the shoe between legs. Rub bottom on scrap paper with old crayon pressing hard. Now sort from rubbings:
smooth---rough
words---no words
slippery---rubber
plus many more

II. How Many Feet in the Bed? Diane Johnston Hamm ISBN 0-671-89903-1
There are _____ people in the bed.
There are _____ feet in the bed.
There are _____ toes in the bed.

Have the children use pictures, numbers and words to explain how many feet are in the bed. How many toes are in the bed. How many people are in the bed.

III. The Foot Book By Dr. Suess

Find out how many feet are in The Foot Book. How many pairs of feet are in the story? Use pictures, numbers, and words to explain your answer.
Extension: Draw all the living things that live in your house. How many feet?


IV. How Big is a Foot? Rolf Myller
Math and Literature (K-3) Book One by Marylin Burns

Read How Big is a Foot until the apprentice went to jail. Discuss apprentice's problem. Write letter to the apprentice and offer him advice how to get out of jail. Or write to the king explaining why it isn't fair that the apprentice went to jail.

V. The Napping House By Audrey Wood Math and Literature (K-3), Book Two by Marylin Burns Read the story. When all the sleepers were piled up how many feet were in the bed? Explain your answer using pictures, numbers, and words.


Vl. Exploring nonstandard measurement with shoes

Give a group of students several objects of varying lengths to examine and sort into groups. Students can then find 10 objects in the classroom that are one shoe in length, thereby, practicing the estimate and confirm strategy. Repeat for two shoe lengths.

How many shoes long are you? How many shoes long is your desk?
How many shoes long is a table? How many shoes long is the classroom?
Discuss proper measurement techniques: no gaps between shoes; no overlaps; no part hanging over

Find a tiled floor in the building. Estimate how many shoes to go around a tile. Measure and confirm. After completing edge measurements of the desk, table, a tile, introduce the vocabulary perimeter.

Advanced Challenges: How many shoes to go around the room? Body Measurement -- Estimate their height in shoes. Measure to confirm. Next measure arm span. Often I have students paint a picture of themselves then measure and label the parts on the painted picture.

VII. "Counting Feet" 50 Problem Solving Lessons Grades 1-6 pages 41-42

VIII. Graph "Do your shoes have laces, buckles, velcro, plain?" How to assess Problem- Solving Skills in Math

Resources for Feet Unit
Whose Shoe? Margaret Miller
Shoes Elizabeth Winthrop
How Many Feet in the Bed? Diane Johnston Hamm ISBN 0-671-89903-1
The Foot Book By Dr. Suess
How Big is a Foot? Rolf Myller
Math and Literature (K-3) Book One by Marylin Burns
The Napping House By Audrey Wood
Math and Literature (K-3), Book Two by Marylin Burns
"Counting Feet" 50 Problem Solving Lessons Grades 1-6
"Do your shoes have laces, buckles, velcro, plain?" How to assess
Problem-Solving Skills in Math

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Use pairs of feet - traced and cut from paper - children decorate owned traced pairs of feet with patterns --- to make a COUNTING IN TWO's chart.

Narelle

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Hi Kathleen,
One thing I did many years ago when I taught 1st was to use the footprints for measurement in math. We estimated how many "feet" it was to different parts of the room, to the restroom, to the library, the cafeteria, the office, etc. Then we laid the feet down and did an actual measurement (not all in one day). My students soon began making important observations on their own - they realized that the footprints were all different sizes - one bright soul asked for a "real" ruler, so they would know the "real" distance. It was a lot of fun - and really educational. I know this isn't 4 Blocks, but after cutting out all the footprints, you might as well use them. The next year we cut out 100 footprints (for Hundreds Day) - it made the measuring a lot easier.

Judy 3rd OH

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Class book: Each child completes the sentence: I like to _____________with my feet. They illustrate their page, etc.

Fran
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The book How Big is a Foot by Rolf Myler is a good one on non-standard measurement and how we need to be sure the foot we use to measure is the same size each time.

Dorothy
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I saw an idea on a video for in-servicing teachers. It showed the children tracing their foot and then cutting it out of several layers of newspaper. They then used this as a non-standard unit to measure things. It turn out that every child was seven of their own feet tall, when measured.

Another idea is to have every child trace circle templates onto a 12 x 18 inch page and then do rubbings from the bottoms of their classmates runners.

Get some old boots and plant them with fast growing palnts like Swedish Ivy or other interesting plants.

Jane
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Have students work in groups of 4 to trace and cut out a footprint of each person, order them smallest to largest and glue on construction paper. Write sentences on sentence strips such as Ami's foot is smaller than Sam's foot. John's foot is the largest foot. Can also be used with <,>,=.

Another math use of a footprint that has been traced and cut out: Use for measuring desks, doors, etc. Each student records measurements. Then discuss why the measurements aren't the same. Lead students to understand why "standard" meassurement is needed.

T. Hutchinson
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I had each child tell what they could do with their feet that they were particularly proud of. We made a class book out of it. EX. Bryce's feet can play soccer and kick goals. Dan's feet can take long hikes on Mt. Tam. Above the text, I had them trace their feet and then color in the color they liked best from the multicultural markers. I've also done this with the multicultural paints (having kids make their footprints), but this is something I do only when I'm feeling energetic! The kids like looking back at the sizes of each other's feet and recognizing each child's special skills. Great for community building.

Marybeth/CA

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Others who work with very young children or in situations where you don't have easy access to washing facilities may find this idea useful:
Talcum powder footprints on black paper

Have each child step on to a piece of scrap paper sprinkled with talcum powder and then on to a sheet of black paper. You can fix the footprints with hair spray but we don't and they last until the children take them home.

Deborah
London U.K.

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