TITLE OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE: What Is Your Opinion? Would you rather eat M&M's or Cheerios? by Julie DeStefano

1. LEARNING CONTEXT

The purpose of this learning experience is to give Kindergarten students the opportunity to use their prior knowledge of grouping 100 items into groups of 10. By participating in this experience, students will also gain the procedural knowledge of forming an opinion and giving a reason for their opinion. This experience will meet the following standards: ELA #3, MST #3, and MST #5.

2. PROCEDURE

To launch the experience 100 M&M's and 100 Cheerios will be placed in separate see through containers two days prior to the experience. Children will have the opportunity to guess how many M&M's or Cheerios are in the containers. Teacher will use a work splash to give the students clues about what we are going to do. Students will listen as the teacher reads "The Cheerios Counting Book" by Barbara Barbieri McGrath. Then, the students will practice counting by 10's. Students will use the think-pair-share technique to practice counting by 10's as high as they can go. The next day of the experience, teacher will divide the children into groups of 5. Each group will have their own table. Each person in each group will have 2 cups. Each cup will represent a group of 10. The teacher will put 100 M&M's or 100 Cheerios in the center of each table. There needs to be an equal number of groups working with M&M's and Cheerios. The students will count and place 10 M&;M's or 10 Cheerios in each cup. Then, they will count by 10's. Children will switch cups so that every child has a cup of M&M's and a cup of Cheerios. Teacher will explain that the students are going to have taste test with M&M's and Cheerios. They need to think about which one they like better. When the students are finished with their taste test, the teacher will hang a large picture of an M&M and a Cheerio. These will be used as graphic organizers. Children will raise their hands to tell the teacher what they like about each one. The teacher will encourage the students to say their statement in a whole sentence (ex. I like M&M's because they taste like chocolate). The teacher will write their statements on the appropriate organizer and draw small illustrations to represent them. Then, the teacher will model the process of writing an opinion using the following close sentence: I like _____ best because __________. The teacher will also illustrate the opi nion, pointing out that the illustration represents the opinion. The teacher will walk around so that every child can whisper their opinion into his or her ear. Each student will be given a paper with the above cloze statement on it and a space for an illustration. The students will fill in the cloze statement to state their opinion. To accommodate a wide range of learners, sentences can be constructed by dictation, cloze, or independently. Then, the students need to draw an illustration that matches their opinion. When the students are finished they can use think-pair-share to share their opinions with each other. On the last day of this experience, the students will type this information into computers and the teacher will scan their illustrations. These pieces can be compiled and made into a class book.

3. INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS

Since the students need to work in groups of 5, they need to have tables to sit at or their desks need to be arranged in groups.

4. TIME REQUIRED

The teacher needs approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to plan and prepare. Implementation will take 3-4 days. Informal assessment will take place throughout the experience. Formal assessment will take about 30 minutes.

5. RESOURCES

The teacher needs to supply the following for the students: 2 cups for each student, papers with the cloze statement (I like _____ best because __________.) and space for an illustration, pencils, crayons, M&M's, Cheerios, computers, and printers. The teacher needs "The Cheerios Counting Book", graphic organizers for the M&M's and Cheerios, two see through containers (one should contain 100 M&M's and the other 100 Cheerios), wordsplash, computer, scanner, and printer.

6. ASSESSMENT PLAN

The teacher will observe the children counting by 10. Opinions will be assessed by using a rubric. The students will assess their own ability to work by filling out a checklist.

7. STUDENT WORK

8. REFLECTION

Students learn best when they can share what they've learned with others. In this experience, children have many opportunities to do think-pair-shares and to work in cooperative groups. They also enjoy when there is a real life purpose involved. The opinions can be made into a graph. This would give them the opportunity to discover if more children like M&M's or Cheerios.