Daily Lesson for 4th grade from October 1, until ...



Daily Lesson for 4th grade from October 1, until Thanksgiving 2003, to be continued through January 2004 using The Houston Chronicle's Weather Page

by Ruth Roden

4th Grade mathematics, science, social studies, health teacher of two different groups of students.

San Jacinto Elementary School, Goose Creek C.I.S.D.

"Today's Weather: Last Page of the Sports Section"

Goose Creek C.I.S.D. makes it mandatory for every elementary math teacher to daily do Great Source's Everyday Counts which the teachers have renamed "Calendar Math." I have my students keep a record of Everyday Counts in their personal Calendar Math Journal.

Starting October 1, I added the following to my students' Calendar Math Journal which is their daily description of that day's Everyday Counts. Every day they had to include the following lines which had to be spelled correctly and written neatly in cursive:

temperature - Houston: /

NYC: /

difference: /

sunrise: a.m.

sunset: p.m.

daylight: hrs. min.

We went over where the Weather Page was located in The Houston Chronicle which is the last page of the Sports section. I showed the students how you could find today's high and low temperature for Houston in three different locations on the Weather Page: top right, next to Houston on the USA weather map, and next to Houston on the Texas weather map. We located cities in the United States located above the 40th latitude and took a class vote on which one we wanted to follow. New York City, New York won the majority of votes. We decided to abbreviate it NYC in our Calendar Math journal. I showed the students two ways to find the NYC high/low temperature for today. We talked about how this was a prediction of what the temperature extremes would be for today. Whereas, in the table for the temperatures for yesterday in NYC, these were the real temperatures since they were in the past and had actually been measured.

I showed the students where the sunset and tomorrow's sunrise are located on the Weather Page. I explained that a.m. had to be after the sunrise's time and p.m. had to be after the sunset's time. I told them we were going to treat the tomorrow's sunrise time as if it were the time of today's sunrise when we were figuring out the amount of daylight for today. I explained that their job would be to write down the high and low temperature for Houston and NYC and the sunrise and sunset times every school day after they had neatly written in cursive the labels written above. They could either write temperature, Houston, difference, etc. everyday in class, or if this was too time-consuming, they could get permission to take the journal out of the classroom to get it done at home for the week. After writing this information in their journal, they had to find the difference of Houston and NYC's high temperature and the difference of Houston and NYC's low temperature. For the first two weeks, I went over a finger-counting method for finding the total number of hours and minutes of daylight and then documented this method on the blackboard in a t-chart.

I have the names of all my students on Popsicle sticks. Each day I would draw a stick, and the student whose name was on the stick had a chance to earn a ticket by finding the Sports section, Houston's high/low temperature, NYC's high/low temperature, and calculating the difference of these temperatures for the difference's high/low temperature. They also had to give the tomorrow's sunrise and sunset times. They had to set Houston's low temperature on the large thermometer I have on the board. If all of this was done correctly, 10 minutes later, the student earned a ticket. We would get all of this information recorded, and I would go over how to find the number of hours and minutes of daylight and everyone would record the daylight. A week before the time changed, we began having a discussion about the sun. How it is a huge heater for the Earth. Did anyone see any patterns with the times the Sun rose and set? Did they see any patterns as to the amount of daylight? What could this mean? When seasons were brought up, we began talking about how the days were getting shorter because the sun was rising later and setting earlier. The Sun, the Earth's "heater," is on a shorter amount of time everyday. Are the low temperatures getting lower over the weeks? When the time fell back to an hour earlier, we talked about whether or not this changed the amount of daylight each day. I was now drawing a second Popsicle stick and expecting the students to find the number of hours and minutes of daylight on their own. It is now Thanksgiving and we are still revisiting every few weeks this discussion about the seasons, the Sun's solar heat on our planet, and what are the patterns we see from our data. It is going to be a holiday homework assignment over the Christmas and New Year's holiday to continue this investigation, since it will be during that time that this cycle reverses itself and the days will start growing longer. In December we are also going to begin graphing our data every day for the temperature as well as the daylight hours and minutes. We will start out using a bar graph and then will have to decide if there is a better type of graph to use, possibly a broken-line graph. I will be graphing it daily the first week, and the second week they will be assigned to make their own graph.

We would also look at the Weather Map of the United States on the weather page and talk about the symbols for the fronts. We noticed a pattern to the United States' weather. It generally came across the continent from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast. We discovered that the United States is located in the westerly wind belt. This is why our weather goes from west to east, because the wind blows the weather fronts.

Monday, November 17, 2003, there was a ferocious weather system which roared through Houston spawning tornadoes and floods. We saw something very unusual in our data we had been keeping. For the first time, Houston's low was lower than NYC's low on Tuesday and Wednesday. We went back and saw that on Saturday's weather map, this front was just barely showing up on the map on the NW corner of Washington state. We decided we should have been able to tell by looking at Sunday and Monday morning's papers that we were in for a bad storm because it was taking it just two days to reach us here in Houston. That meant its winds were very strong and fast to move it so quickly. Since it was coming into the United States from the Northwest, it had cold northern air. It had been unseasonably hot here in Texas. When the two different temperatures of air rammed together because the cold air was traveling so fast, it caused a bad storm. Then we predicted what we thought NYC's low temperature would be when that same weather front reached it two days after hitting Houston. Since we had a 13 degree drop, we predicted the same would happen to NYC. But, it didn't. It was far less. We were then able to decide the front had changed as it had traveled the entire distance across the continent. The hot southern states had warmed it up some, and it had dropped a lot of its moisture along the way. But the winds were still moving it along quickly.

Math TEKS that this lesson hits:

This lesson is especially good for 4th and 5th grades because of figuring the elapsed time for the daylight, which is a challenge for these students. 4th grade math TEK(b)(12) Measurement-time, temperature. 5th grade math TEK(b)(11)(A) Measure to solve problems involving time, temperature.

It maintains subtraction of whole number skills with daily finding the differences of the high and low temperatures. Grades 3-5 have either math TEK(b)(3)(A) or (b)(3)(B) Use subtraction with whole numbers using 2-digit (or more digit) numbers.

It maintains the 3rd grade skill of using a thermometer to measure temperature by having to set the big thermometer each day. 3rd Grade math TEK(b)(12)(B) Use thermometer to measure temperature.

Collecting, ordering, organizing, and displaying data in a graph meets the 4th grade math TEK(b)(13) Collect, organize, and display data; and the 5th grade math TEK(b)(13)(C) Graph given set of data using an appropriate graphical representation.

Identify mathematics in everyday situations. Math TEK for 3rd grade (b)(15)(A); 4th grade (b)(14)(A); 5th grade (b)(14)(A).

Science TEKS this lesson hits:

Last year I was a 5th grade teacher math and science teacher. 5th grade teachers have to worry about the 5th Grade Science TAKS Test. If your lesson is reviewing science TEKS from earlier grades, that's great since the 5th grade test is over all the different elementary grade level TEKS.

Kindergarten Science TEK (a)(2) Students observe the seasons as examples of change. (b)(5)(B) Observe and identify patterns including seasons, day and night, and predict what happens next. (b)(7)(A)(B)(C) Record changes in time and temperature; Identify that the Sun warms the air; record weather changes from day to day and over seasons.

1st Grade Science TEK (a)(5) Investigations are used to learn about the natural world. (b)(7)(C) Record changes in weather from day to day and over seasons.

2nd and 3rd Grade Science TEK (a)(4) All systems have basic properties that can be described in terms of space, time, energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems and can be observed and measured as patterns. These patterns help to predict what will happen next and can change over time. 2nd Grade TEK(b)(7)(D) Record changes in weather, the night sky, and seasons.

4th Grade Science TEK (a)(2) The role of the Sun as our major source of energy. (b)(2)(E) Construct simple graphs to organize, examine and evaluate information. (b)(6)(A) Identify patterns of change such as in weather and objects in the sky. (b)(11)(C) Identify the Sun as the major source of energy for the Earth.

5th Grade Science TEK (b)(2)(E) Construct simple graphs to organize, examine, and evaluate information. (b)(5)(A) Describe some cycles. (b)(6)(A) Identify events and describe changes that occur on a regular basis such as in daily, weekly, lunar, and seasonal cycles. (b)(8)(A) Differentiate among forms of energy including solar energy.

Social Studies TEKS used in this lesson:

1st Grade Social Studies TEK (a)(3) A greater depth of understanding of complex content material can be attained when integrated social studies content from the various disciplines and critical-thinking skills are taught together. (b)(4)(A) Locate places using the four cardinal directions. (b)(5)(B) Locate Texas on a map of the United States. (b)(6)(A) Identify and describe the physical characteristics of weather.

3rd Grade Social Studies TEK (b)(5)(A)(C) Use cardinal and intermediate directions to locate places on the map; identify and use the compass rose, grid, and symbols to locate places on maps. (b)(17)(C) Use standard spelling and punctuation.

4th Grade and 5th Grade Social Studies TEK (b)(6)(A) Apply geographic tools including grid system, symbols, compass rose to interpret maps.

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