Problem Solving and the Common Core

Classroom strategies with activities

First strategy

In the first part of my unit we will be talking about planting lettuce and kale, because both can be grown as early as the end of February. All of my math word problems will be using lettuce and kale so that we can then go plant what we learned. To get my students excited about working with lettuce we will watch a short read aloud about lettuce and a butterfly: http://www.playrific.com/m/7862/book-lettuce-and-the-butterfly. Since this book has a butterfly in it you can also talk to your students about the importance of animals that help pollinate the flowers for reproduction. Other books that you can read to get your students excited about this topic could be Lettuce by Diana Kizlauskas and/or Garden Safari Vegetable Soup by Eluka Moore, Larry Puzniak and Marianne Welsh. This book uses kale in the vegetable soup so you can then make the soup once your kale comes up in your garden. Since these plants will be planted at the same time, they should be ready for harvest around the same time so that my students can write their own problems in their garden math journal. The students could also compare and contrast the two using their five senses.

First activity

My students and I will be using the same kind of containers for both our lettuce and kale plants. We will start the plants in our classroom by using a “Jump-Start Garden”. A jump-start garden is just getting a jump on your garden by starting the seeds inside before putting them outside. We will plant in peat pots, which are special containers made from peat moss. An empty egg carton, or cardboard milk carton, like the milk cartons that we get at our school at breakfast and lunch, makes a good seedling tray for tiny seeds. When it is time to plant the seedlings we will use the compost dirt that our Pre-Kindergarten has been making in the classroom. If you aren’t able to get your hands on compost make sure you use good soil for your plants for best results. After planting and watering and giving it sunshine your plant should then grow. Once it starts growing, use it to have students make new word problems. I will have them work in groups, so that all of my students can experience it, regardless of their reading and writing ability. This will make even my ELL students feel involved.

Second strategy

The second part of my unit we will use the herbs spearmint and chocolate mint to show the kids a different kind of item to grow. To get my students excited we will talk about different ways that we can use these two herbs in their kitchens. We will read through recipes to find ways to use them once they start growing. We will compare and contrast how herbs and lettuce and kale are different and the same.

Second activity

Since mint is such an invasive herb they will be put into separate containers so that they don’t take over the other plants. Since they can also be grown indoors these might be some of the first plants that we plant to start our unit. We will use a window box to plant these herbs. We will line the bottom with moss and a few pebbles for drainage and for the roots to hold water longer. Herb seeds take several weeks to sprout so if they don’t grow soon, give them a chance. Don’t give up!! The students will draw what happens over the weeks in the math journals so that we can construct word problems for our herbs. We will also work on recipes for the two herbs that we are growing, since part of the reason for this unit is to show my students how they can use the stuff we are growing in their own homes. We can also put into just water so that they can see how it flavors stuff.

Third strategy

The next part of our unit will be planting tomatoes and peppers. They should be planted between April 10^th and the 30^th of April. Since I would like to get some fruits off of these plants we will also start these as seedlings. We will start the plants in our classroom so that we can start them right after spring break. For growing tomatoes, you will need lots of sun and rich loose soil and lots of water. Make sure to water the roots, not the leaves. Tomato plants grow very tall so they will need to be tied to a pole or be staked. All of my math word problems will be using tomatoes and peppers so that we can then go and plant what we learned. These problems will be taught before and after spring break time, which for us is around March 14^th. To get the my students excited about this we will read some books about tomatoes and peppers and talk about how we can us them in our kitchens at home and the things that we can make with them. Some books that might be fun to read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert, I will never not ever eat a Tomato by Lauren Child, Green is a Chili Pepper by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, The Traveling Jalapeños Meet Tripp Halstead by Donna Nolan-Wilson. These are just some fun books to entertain the students during math read aloud.

Third activity

A little history lesson in a science unit, as told in the book Kids Garden by Avery Hart and Paul Mantell.  In 1820, Robert Johnson stood on the courthouse steps of Salem, New Jersey, and shocked his neighbors by eating a big, red, ripe, juicy tomato. The people who watched were horrified! Everybody back then knew that tomatoes were deadly poisonous! Mr. Johnson ate not one, but a whole pailful of tomatoes. Then, with a lively spring in his step, he walked down the stairs, got in his horse-drawn buggy, and drove off. Since then, people have been eating tomatoes by the bushelful-and no one has ever gotten sick from a tomato as far as we know! Thank you, Robert Johnson, for clearing up a misunderstanding about one of our favorite foods! After teaching the kids a little history about tomatoes we will plant some tomato and pepper plants. We will plant these two plants as we did the lettuce and kale. We will use stakes or poles for the tomatoes when the plants start growing big.

Fourth strategy

The next part of our unit will be planting and working with eggplant and okra. These plants also should be planted between April10th and the 30^th of April. In order to get vegetables from these plants before the end of school we will start them as seeds into seedlings in our classroom, probably around the time that we do the tomatoes and peppers. We could also compare and contrast all four plants. Starting with the difference in seeds to the seedlings to the plants and how they look alike and different. Once again these problems will be introduced around spring break, so that we can get them planted early hopefully to produce vegetables before the end of the year. I will introduce these two vegetables by reading Autumn the Eggplant by Anna Corriveau, and Grandma’s Gumbo by Deborah Ousley Kadair.

I will construct a set of problems of all fourteen types for eggplant and okra, similar to the sets given above for lettuce and kale, and for tomatoes and peppers, but I will not give the set here. The reader can enjoy constructing them for her/himself.

Fourth activity

We will use our eggplant in our classroom for taste testing. If our tomato plants produce fruit maybe we can make tomato sauce to go on top of some cooked eggplant. When the okra plants produce fruit we will make some baked okra with a toaster oven.

Fifth strategy

The final part of this unit will be planting some more herbs. I chose basil and oregano because that is something that the students can learn to use in their homes with their parents. It will also be good with tomatoes and eggplant. If everything grows well we can make eggplant pizzas using items from our garden. Like the mint, oregano is very invasive, so we will need to make sure that we separate it from the rest of the plants, so that it does not take off in another container. As for the basil, I will purchase a few plants to get started, and then we will add basil seeds to the container.

Again, there will be a collection of problems, of all 14 types, about basil and oregano. These problems are given in Appendix II.

Fifth activity

We will use our word problems to plant these herbs into containers for our garden. When they grow we will use them in cooking to show the kids how to use what we grew in their everyday lives. If we produce enough herbs and vegetables we will make baskets for the teachers and the families to use in their kitchens.