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Grade: Pre-School
Subject: other

#1084. Over in the Meadow Teaching Basic Math Concepts

, level: Pre-School
Posted Mon Mar 15 10:00:09 PDT 2010 by Alisha England (Alisha England).
ODU Prek-6 licensure student, Richlands USA
Materials Required: play dough, book, coordinating animal pieces from story, picture graph worksheets
Activity Time: 30+ minutes
Concepts Taught: counting, addition, subtraction, graphing

My Math lesson plan using literature, which actually covers basic math concepts, would have to be Over in the Meadow: A Book of Colors and Counting illustrated by Doug Bowles. This book contains 15 foams pieces (included with the book) which are all the baby animals in the story. This book is perfect for teaching not only counting, but also graphing, addition and subtraction for PreK-1st graders.


Activity 1: Numerical Order and Addition

After reading the story, Over in the Meadow, students will put the mixed up baby animal foam pieces in correct numerical order. Then together as a class we will add the total number of baby animals in the story (15).


Activity 2: Graphing; Who Has More?

Group work: using a picture graph, the children will be able to sort the foam pieces and compare how many different types of baby animals there were in the story and answer the following questions:


Which animal had the most babies in the story?


Which animal had the fewest or least number of babies in the story?


Individual work: the children can continue to practice graphing by coloring a graphing worksheet with instructions to color in one block to represent every baby animal found in the story beside the picture of that animal (i.e. for example there should be 4 blocks colored beside the picture of the frog to show that there are 4 baby frogs).


Activity 3: Subtraction:

As a class they have added the total number of baby animals in the story and found it to be 15 baby animals in all during activity 1. Now the teacher will take away some of the baby animals and the children will count together and see how many are left. We will end this activity by practicing counting backwards from 15 as a class as we put away all the foam baby animal pieces.