Monday, May 10, 2010

The Grouchy Ladybug in Grade One

On Thursday i visited OMSK classrooms and popped in to see Mrs. Dow's Grade 1 class. They were reading The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. She had those students just itching and yearning to see the next page, while reinforcing the concept of the passage of time.

This is a great book to use to discuss a number of items, one of which is learning about time. Below is one lesson outline from the Web; there are plenty more to choose from.

Mrs. Dow signed the book out from the Numeracy resource library. If you are interested in signing out a book, or have an idea for Literature that integrates well with math teaching, please leave a comment on the blog. A full list of resources and literature available for sign out is always located in the link list on the right hand side.

Here is one of the lesson plans for The Grouchy Ladybug:

A Math Lesson Plan Featuring The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle


Apr 7, 2010 Megan Sheakoski

Teachers can use the book The Grouchy Ladybug to teach elementary students how to read a clock and tell time during an integrated math and reading lesson.

Learning about clocks and telling time does not have to be intimidating for elementary students. Teachers can make telling time math lessons fun by integrating reading into their lesson plans. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle [Harper Collins, 1996] details the day of an unfriendly ladybug. In the story Carle notes the hour of the day in which each event occurs. Teachers can use The Grouchy Ladybug to teach kids how to tell time.

Elementary Telling Time Math Lesson Plan Objectives

  1. Students will correctly sequence events in The Grouchy Ladybug on a timeline according to the hour it occurred.
  2. Students will correctly label times from The Grouchy Ladybug on blank clock faces.

Elementary Telling Time Math Lesson Materials

  • The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
  • Pocket chart and blank sentence strips
  • Sentence strips with clocks showing each hour
  • Sentence strips with each hour written digitally
  • Blank clock worksheets

Elementary Telling Time Lesson Plan

During Language Arts class the teacher reads and discusses The Grouchy Ladybug with the class. The teacher plans reading and writing lessons based on the needs of the students in the class. During the lessons the teacher will call attention to the hours listed for each event in the story. The students will talk about clocks and how they are used to tell time.

The teacher tapes sentence strips with the hours from the story written on them on the board. The students draw a picture on blank sentence strips for each event in the story. The students match the drawing to the correct time using the book for reference if necessary.

The teacher shows the students a clock and discusses how even though there are 24 hours in a day there are only 12 hours on a clock. She explains how there are 2 cycles of the clock each day. The teacher draws a large clock on the front board. The kids match each story event to the corresponding hour on the clock to create a timeline.

The teacher shows the kids how the little hand and big hand on a clock work together to show the hour. She passes blank clock worksheets out to the students. The teacher uses the front board to demonstrate how to draw the hands on the clock to represent each hour. The students work with a partner to draw and label a timeline for The Grouchy Ladybug.

Elementary students can learn how to read and label hours on a clock using The Grouchy Ladybug. For more math and reading lesson plans teachers can read How to Teach Primary Math Patterns and the Math and Science Chart Lesson Plan featuring the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff [Harper Collins, 2000] and Teach Non-Standard Measurement to Kids featuring If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff [Harper Collins, 1998].

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