Winnie Koo - Ravenswood School

Learning with Links

Winnie Koo                     Ravenswood School
                               4332 North Paulina 
                               CHICAGO IL 60613     
                               (773) 534-5525 

Objective(s):

Discuss and demonstrate the meaning of counting, measuring, and estimating of 
objects.

Materials Needed:

Four boxes of plastic links of different colors.

Strategy:

Using handson activities to help students understand the concept of counting, 
measuring, and estimating.

Activity of Counting

(1) Explain and demonstrate the meaning of "counting" (write the word 
   "counting" on the board) using example such as money, fingers, or furniture
   inside the classroom, etc.

(2) Show students what a link is (write down the word "link" on the board) and 
   ask a few students to come up counting certain amount of links on the tables
   to see if the students know how to count.  For example, ask the students to
   count 5 links, 10 links, 15 links, and so forth.

(3) Ask students if they still have any question on how to count.  If they still 
   have question, repeat step 1 and 2 with different examples until they all 
   understand the concept of counting.

Activity of Measurement 

(1) Separate students into groups and distribute a box of links for each group.

(2) Demonstrate to students how to put the links together to form a longer 
   link.

(3) Ask each group to form links of different number such as links of 5, 7, 10, 
   and so forth, to see if they have any trouble in doing it.

(4) Tell students we can use these links for "measurement" (Write the work 
   "measurement" on the board) and tell them the word "measurement" means how 
   long or how wide something is.  Show students some examples until they 
   understand the meaning of measurement.

(5) Distribute the handout to each group.

(6) Ask each group to turn to page 1 of the handout and ask who can tell what 
   is going on in the first picture (listen to the response, give praises to  
   those whose answers are correct).

(7) Tell students the name of the boy in the picture is Julio and Julio's arm 
   is 12 links long.  Have students construct a length of 12 links to see how
   long is Julio's arm.

(8) Repeat step 7 with the rest of the picture on page 1 and 2.

(9) Now ask students of each group to measure two of their body parts and to put 
   down the data on the sheet, including a picture of the body part they measure.

(10) Pick some students to report the result.

Activity of Estimation 

(1) Write down the word "estimation" on the board and tell students the next 
   activity is about estimation.  Tell students that we can also measure things 
   in a different way called estimation.  But estimation is different in a way 
   that it does not tell the exact measurement of a thing.  What it means is 
   that estimation is a way to guess how long or how much is a thing. 

(2) Ask for a volunteer.

(3) Take out a pen or a pencil.  Ask the student how many links does it take to 
   find out the length of the pen or pencil.

(4) After the student gave the answer, ask him or her use the links to find out 
   the exact length of it.  Then ask the student how many link(s) of his/her 
   answer is/are off from the actual answer.  The student's answer should be 
   closed to the exact answer.  This example tells what it means by estimation.

(5) Do the estimation activity on the handout.

Performance Assessment:

Through the activities and by working on the work papers, students will be 
assessed how much they have learned from the lesson. 

Conclusions:

Students should have a solid understand of the concept of counting, measuring, 
and estimating.