Googie Math / Art

Free Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NP0t-fn9RroznPtcnbsyS_y43rpV9J6h/view?usp=sharing

Practice your money skills and get creative with Shel Silverstein's "The Googies are Coming," from Where the Sidewalk Ends. What is a googie? Who knows?! Have kids write a definition for a googie. Next have them make a snapshot image of a googie. Then kids add up the cost of certain children! Once they figured out the different costs, they become googies and choose 5 children (draw/ add up the cost). 

Note: Tell kids googies want children to play with, so no one gets scared!

Pass The Plate Poetry

Students are split up into teams. Each team is given a plastic plate with a topic written on it and a dry erase marker. The team must brainstorm quickly and take turns jotting down words that relate to the topic. Once time is up, they collaborate and create a poem using the words on their plate and their topic as the title. The plates can be rinsed off and used again.

One Inch Tall

Read the poem "One Inch Tall" from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Then pass out the "one inch tall rulers" and try to find something that measures an inch! What could you do around the classroom if you were only one inch tall? Kids use the ruler as a guide. What could they do if they were 2, 3, 4 or 5 inches tall?!

click here to download rulers / poem: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qSPrJkXWCb6xklDscLOnEbE2FHH4Sim-/view?usp=sharing

Baloney Belly

Read the poem "Baloney Belly Billy" by Shel Silverstein. Then have kids brush up on their money skills! Give them a certain amount of money to feed Billy. They decide what they want him to eat. Have them create a receipt including the cost of each item they fed Billy and the total amount of money they spent. 

Optional Craft (kids love this craft!) - Create your very own Billy. Have kids make an oversized construction paper head with a hole cut out where his mouth is. Tape a sandwich bag underneath. Kids can throw the items he eats in his mouth (kids draw paper items). You could also tape the head to a brown, paper lunch bag or tissue box (both with a hole for Billy's snack items).

Writing - What would you offer Billy for "another 50 cents?" ($1.50)

18 Flavors

Read the poem 18 Flavors by Shel Silverstein. Next, tell kids that they are going to become ice cream inventors! Pass out a template for a scoop of ice cream and lay out different colors of construction paper.  Each child decorates his scoop of ice cream to look like the flavor he invented. Then, have students cut out their scoops and write their name on the back. Place their scoops of ice cream at the math station, along with a paper cut out cone. Kids go back and measure the ice cream cone with different scoops. How tall is it with one, two, three, four, five, and so on. 

Optional: Hanging up next to the station, write the price of one scoop. Have kids purchase their scoops of ice cream before measuring them to practice their money skills.

Writing: Have kids write a recipe for the ice cream flavor they invented! What will they call their flavor?

Click here for ice cream fractions and here for Sweet Shop Math! Click here for the full lesson with free printables!

Smart

President's day, poetry, and math: Have kids do coin rubbings in the open squares. Then, they write the coin amount on the line. For more president's day fun click here!

Keerplunk

Read Shel Silverstein's poem "Shapes" aloud to students. As they listen, have them follow along at their desk with a set of paper shape cutouts (rectangle, square, triangle, circle, as well as a couple of other shapes not included in the poem). Afterwards, have them retell key details from the poem in order, using their cutouts to help guide them. (What fell from the sky? Who went to the hospital? Who rolled him there? etc.) Then, have them create their own shape poem or comic strip, involving any four shapes they'd like! Encourage them to choose at least one shape that wasn't in Silverstein's poem.

Casey at the Bat!

Children's Book featured: Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 By: Ernest L. Thayer

PBL learning activities that go along with the poem, "Casey at the Bat!" 

MILB (Minor League Baseball) has compiled a packet of lesson plans for active learning. Below are just a few of the activities included:

Math
- Double Play game with jersey numbers
- Create a concession stand to understand money and economics
Language Arts
- Create a baseball card
- Become a news reporter
- Baseball Vocabulary
Science
- Why do baseball fields have grass (and how to maintain it)
- Build a mini stadium
- Nutrition

Visit BSU for character analysis activities and freebies that go along with the poem!

Click here for baseball experiments!

Poem Link - EDhelper

OUCH! Band Aid Fractions and Writing

Integrate literature, math, and writing with band aids! Pass out copies of Shel Silverstein's "Band Aids" poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Then, split kids up into teams of two. Have one kid trace the other on an oversized sheet of paper (butcher paper). Give each team 35 band-aids of various shapes or colors. Using the poem, they stick band-aids on the body outline (where Silverstein says they are placed). Next, they do the math! They figure out the total number of band-aids in Shel Silverstein's poem. Have them count up the total number of band-aids on the body outline. Then, they must refer back to the poem to figure out the total number of band-aids Silverstein used (poem says box of 35 more). Once they have figured out the total, have them write a fraction for each band-aid shape (or color).

Writing - After the math activity, have kids write about a time they got hurt. Kids love sharing bruise stories! Afterwards, use band-aids to perform contraction surgery or number operation!