Classroom
Activities
Once Upon a Dime
by Nancy Kelly Allen
Facilitate whole class participation in the shared
reading and discussion of Once Upon a Dime. Read aloud the story.
Stop reading at various points and ask students to
make predictions, such as, What will grow on the tree when pig squish is used as
fertilizer? Sheep biscuits?
Bull chips?
Ask the following open-ended questions:
1.
What did you think about the story?
2.
Did the story remind you of anything you have heard, seen, or read?
3.
What did you like about the story?
4.
What did you learn from listening/reading the story?
5.
Which character was your favorite? Why?
6.
What passage in the story did you like the most?
Why?
7. Did you notice a pattern in the book? Explain the pattern you noticed.
8.
Can money really grow on trees?
9.
What is the relationship between plants and animals in this story?
In real life?
Have
students complete one or more of the following based on the book:
1.
Write a letter to other students persuading them to read the book.
2.
Write a book review persuading readers to either read the book or not
read the book. Include a
description of the story, but do not include the ending.
What was the author’s message and purpose in writing the book?
Give your opinion of the book (Did you like it?
Rank it from one to five. One
is the highest ranking). Make a chart to display the rankings.
3.
Write a poem about a farm or money.
4.
Write a newspaper article about the events that happened on the farm.
5.
Write a letter to Farmer Worth suggesting what fertilizer he should use
on the tree. Explain what you think
would grow if the fertilizer is used. A
mixture of two fertilizers can be used. What two fertilizers do you
recommend? Explain what you think would grow with the two fertilizers and
how much of each.
Students will demonstrate what they have learned
through performance or activities.
1.
Write and perform a commercial about an “unusual” farm.
2.
Divide students into several groups of three.
Each group retells the story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Each
member of a group is assigned a segment of the story to retell.
3.
Create a word quilt.
Each student writes the name of a farm animal or a coin, such as
“dime” on a square of paper. Draw
a picture of the animal or coin. Piece
the papers together on the wall to make a quilt.
4.
Students will act out events in the story in the order in which they happened.
Discuss fiction and
nonfiction.
1.
Ask the students if a money tree could really grow on a farm?
2.
Is this story fiction or nonfiction? How
did you decide on your answer?
3.
Cite example passages that indicate the story is fiction.
4.
Have students write or express orally an “unusual” farm they would like to
own or visit.
1.
Students will decorate a tree (a branch of a tree held upright in a tree stand
or flower pot) with plastic coins. Attach
a paperclip to the end a string and tie other end of string to a branch on the
tree. Tie several strings to the
branches. Slip plastic coins in each paperclip.
Let students have a picking party. Students
will add the value of the coins they picked.
One or two students picking at a time is recommended.
Variation: Students picks
only pennies or dimes, to learn to recognize that particular coin.
2.
Most of the animals on the farm were plain and regular, also known as average.
Take a few measurements of the students in class.
Share the data to find the “average” in the following:
Head Circumference____________
Arm span from fingertip to
fingertip_______________
Pulse rate (at rest)______________
Shoe size____________
Height_____________
Weight_____________
Age_____________
Number of vehicles in
household_____________
Number of pets______________
Find the Mean,
Median, Mode,
and Range of the data collected.
v Mean-_____________
Mean is the same as finding the average of a group.
To get the mean, add up all the numbers for any category, such as Shoe
Size, in your data collection. Divide
that number by the number of students that participated.
v Median-____________Median
means the middle number. To find the
medial, organize the numbers for any category, such as Pulse Rate, in your data
collection so they are listed from smallest to largest.
Find the number exactly in the middle.
If you have an even number of items, you will have to find the number
that comes between the two middle numbers.
v Mode-____________Mode
means the number which occurs the most often.
To find the mode, list the numbers for any category, such as Age, in your
data collection. The number that
appears most often is the mode.
v Range-____________Range
is the difference between the largest number and the smallest number in your
data collection.
Do you think the people on Bird Haven Hollow were
full of hot air when they told the story of money growing on trees?
Could you also be full of hot air? A
balloon will give you an idea of just how much hot air you exhale with each
breath. For demonstration, give one
student a balloon. The student will
blow one breath into the balloon. Hold
the stem of the balloon closed while another student measures the circumference
(distance around) the balloon. Have
student blow one more breath into the balloon.
Take second measurement. Keep
blowing one breath at a time, measuring after each.
What did the balloon measure after one breath_____?
Two_____?
Three_____?
Four_____?
How many breaths did it take to fully inflate the
balloon______?
Give each student a balloon and a partner.
Just how full of hot air are the students?
Let them measure to find out. Make a chart to record data from each
student.
How many quarters are in a quarter of a quart of
quarters? Fill a quarter of a quart with quarters and count the number.
Does the size of the quarter-of-a-quart container make a difference? Does
a tall, narrow quarter-of-a-quart container hold more quarters than a wide,
shallow quarter-of-a-quart container? Does the shape of the container make
a difference? Why or why not?
Core Content
RD-04-2.0.7
Students
will make inferences or draw conclusions based on what is read.
RD-04-3.0.1
Students will
explain a character’s or speaker’s actions based on a passage.
RD-04-4.0.1
Students
will connect information from a passage to students’ lives (text-to-self),
real world issues (text-to-world) or other texts (text-to-text - e.g., novel,
short story, song, film, website, etc.).
RD-04-5.0.2
Students
will identify literary devices such as foreshadowing, imagery or figurative
language ( similes, metaphors, and personification).
In Personal Expressive Writing,
·
Students will communicate the significance of the writer’s life
experience by narrating about life events or relationships.
·
Students will apply the characteristics of the selected form
(e.g., personal narrative, personal memoir).
·
Students will create a point of view.
WR-04-1.1.2
In Literary Writing,
·
Students will communicate to an audience about the human condition
by painting a picture, recreating a feeling, telling a story, capturing a
moment, evoking an image, or showing an extraordinary perception of the
ordinary.
·
Students will apply characteristics of the selected form (e.g.,
short story, play/script, poem).
·
Students will create a point of view.
·
Students will use a suitable tone or appropriate voice.
Students
will apply a fictional perspective in literary writing when appropriate.
Students
will analyze real-world problems to identify the appropriate mathematical
operations, and will apply operations to solve real-world problems with the
following constraints:
·
add and subtract whole
numbers with three digits or less;
·
multiply whole numbers
of 10 or less;
·
add and subtract
fractions with like denominators less than or equal to four and
·
add and subtract
decimals related to money.
Students
will analyze and make inferences from data displays (drawings, tables/charts,
tally tables, pictographs, bar graphs, circle graphs, line plots, Venn
diagrams).
Students
will apply and describe appropriate strategies for estimating quantities of
objects and computational results (limited to addition and subtraction).
MA-EP-1.3.1
Students
will analyze real-world problems to identify the appropriate mathematical
operations, and will apply operations to solve real-world problems with the
following constraints:
·
add and subtract whole
numbers with three digits or less;
·
multiply whole numbers
of 10 or less;
·
add and subtract
fractions with like denominators less than or equal to four and
·
add and subtract
decimals related to money.
MA-EP-4.1.2
Students
will collect data.
MA-EP-4.1.3
Students
will organize and display data.
MA-EP-5.1.1
Students
will extend simple patterns (e.g., 2,4,6,8, …; ◊∆◊∆
…).
Plants make their own food. All animals
depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food. Other animals eat animals
that eat the plants. Basic
relationships and connections between organisms in food chains can be used to
discover patterns within ecosystems.
Students
will improvise to tell stories that show action and have a clear beginning,
middle, and end. (Literary elements)