Who Would Win?

I am always trying to find ways to integrate multiple subjects into one project.  Last year I was introduced to the book series Who Would Win which lends easily to a student based project.  In each book the author chooses two animals to match up against and provides various facts about each.  He does it as a narrative with pictures but then also adds in interesting fact bubbles throughout the book.  Students can complete a checklist of who would win based on various comparisons--- height, fur, speed, etc.  At the end he puts them in a final match up and students are able to see if their predictions are correct.  They are engaged from the beginning!

As a class we decided we would create our very own who would win books.

#1 I started by reading a book to them.  We noticed various non-fiction text features the author uses throughout the book and listed them.  I then let the kids get into pairs and choose one of the other books to partner read.  I gave them a sticky note.. on one side they completed the checklist and on the other they wrote what new features they noticed.  We shared out and added the additions to our list.

#2 I introduced the kids to World Book online. Go to Kids---World of Animals. We talked about how it wouldn't make sense for me to compare a wasp to an elephant, so when choosing animals they would choose from similar species. In World Book they make it easy and have animal selections grouped by land mammals, water, reptiles, etc.  The kids get to select the two animals to compare and it creates an easy format that shows different facts about each.  The program has an easy print button that doesn't use up all of the ink. 

  

 #3 After students got their animals we came back and listed what we thought would be important to include in each book.  I wanted to give them a framework, but all them AMPLE space for creativity. I modeled some of the pieces for the book and how to do the comparisons with math.

Who Would Win Book Pieces
 1.  A cover--- which we modeled after Steve Jenkins layered artwork.  I made them the cover "Who Would Win" pieces and they did the rest.
2.  An introduction posing a question of what would happen if these two animals came across each other.
3.  THREE math comparing measurement using pictures AND words. (We were working on measurement in math so that's how I tied all of this in :))
4.  At least one page of other facts and a map
4.  Include interesting text features from the list--- tales of the tape, facts, etc.
5.  A final battle
6. Checklist of their comparisons

I set out all of the papers and pieces and honestly let them have at it! It took about 2 math blocks and 1 literacy to get it all done.  They were engaged THE ENTIRE time.  I roamed around and helped as needed... but it was all completely independent.  Clearly there were a few stragglers but for the majority that is all the time they needed.

I bound them with binding combs and then the kids had a book sharing party where they rotated around and read each other's books.  They were so amazed with what the other kids had done and just loved them.  I hung them in plastic zip lock bags outside in the hall as a display so that other kids/adults could read them.

Here are some snippets from their work

Here are the files I created for them to make their books.Happy comparing and creating!

I've added pages for to use World Book to compare Countries!  It's all part of my country report back.  Here's a freebie below

Actual Size- a morning of measurement

We learned today-- it is okay to compare.  :) Today we used Steve Jenkins's book Actual Size to compare measurement between our hand and a gorilla's.  I LOVE Steve Jenkins books- he is so creative in his perspective of looking at non-fiction and his books can be a launching point for so many standards across many disciplines.  He is really well known for "What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?" 

 

 

I copied the gorilla hand from the book onto 11x17 paper.  I wanted to keep it 'actual size' though reducing it to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet would have been much easier.  :)  In second grade a standard is to compare different measurements.2. MD.A.4 Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit.

I had students draw their hand inside of the gorillas and begin measuring it from different lengths to compare measurement.  They used both inches and centimeters and then found the difference between their hand and the gorillas. i.e "The gorilla's middle finder to the bottom of his palm is 12 inches and mine is 7 inches. The difference is 5 inches." "The gorillas thumb is 5 1/2 in. and my thumb is 4.5 inches.  The gorilla's thumb is 1 in. bigger than my thumb"

We created a word bank on the board so they could be precise with what they were describing-- because if not... they would have just been giving me the finger a lot!!!  For students that were quick I had them total the length of the gorillas fingers and find the difference with their total finger length. Same for knuckles.  It was great for differentiation because students could go at their own pace and you could easily modify how and what they measure.  For younger students they could easily do with with cubes, paper clips, etc.

After they were winding down on measurement I asked them if the ruler alone can describe the size difference in their hands.  At first they didn't get it, so I had 2 students come up.  I gave one a really thin piece of paper and another one a big piece--- both of the same length.  I asked if that was the same length-- so they are the same?  They caught on and said "NOOOOO they are different sizes"  Insert lesson on area.

I rummaged under my desk, aka Mary Poppin's carpet bag, and found Valentines candy hearts that we didn't use.  As a table they found out how many candy hearts fit into the gorilla hand, and then had them to the same individually.  This also posed as an excellent springboard for arrays and multiplication.  They found the difference in area (in candy hearts) between the gorillas hand and theirs.

"The area of the gorillas hand is_____ candy hearts.  The area of my hand is ______ candy hearts.  The difference in areas is _____ candy hearts."

 

After they got done they shared in groups and then on the carpet. The book has a TON of other animals to compare with and get different measurements from.  You could use this book to count with standard/nonstandard units, multiplication, ratios, proportions, area, mass, volume, weight, comparing different animals in writing, habitats, adaptations, etc.

Measurement Olympics

Today I combined with my teaching buddy and our classes competed in the “The Measurement Olympics.”  I work with some INCREDIBLE ladies and it is jsut so fun to collaborate.  

We went outside and students had to take part in different activities- discus throw with paper plates, shot put with a cotton ball, long jump, high jump, javelin with a straw.  Students measured their distances, we compared them within our class and then with the other 2^nd grade class.  We held a ceremony and gave really fancy printed medals as their awards

We set up 5 rotations outside and divided the class into groups.
At each station we had a cone and then a starting line made out of masking tape.
The tools for each--- really only a cotton ball, a few straws, and yard/sticks or measuring tape.
 For the long jump students held a straw in their hand and used that as a marker for their measurement.

For the high jump we ended up putting up a strip of tape as measurement and had students jump with a piece of tape in their hand and hit the column.

Students kept clipboards with their sheets and a pencil.  We rotated clockwise through all 5 stations.  Each station took approximately 10-15 minutes for 7-8 students to get through.

We then came back to class, shared out about their experience, and compared our numbers between girls, then boys, then together.  After I got together with the other teacher and combined our two scores (I think her kids cheated a bit though:) )

  Here are the files we used for our 
class rankings and their
 Olympic measurement data.

Google docs doesn't allow me to use my cutesy fonts.... so change those at your leisure!  

We had a medal ceremony in which we set up a stool and 2 different sized chairs to students to stand on as they received their awards.  We had the Olympic theme song playing in the background and a picture of the rings on the board.  Student were awarded a paper medal and a free homework pass.

The kids loved getting outside and I loved them working/having a great time and allowing them to be independent.  Plus it's just nice to be with another teacher for part of the day to share in the ridiculous things our precious angels say.

Enjoy your weekend!  I am training for a half marathon-- note... I HATE running--- and doing 7 miles tomorrow after having Mexican food no less than 3 times this week.  Prayers!  :)