Lesson Plan: Week #3

Week #3 Lesson Plan

Theme: Analyze the Site

o   Activities:

  1. Review the last two weeks, what we did and why we did it

·      Week#1: observing our surroundings and imagining our gardens

·      Week #2: tested soil and made compost to enrich soil

·      Week #3: we are going to do more observations and a detailed analysis of the area.

 2. Noting Notable Features Map/Observation Map (free hand)

·      each kid draws their own map of the school yard with

o   foot traffic

o   sun, shade, hot, cold areas

o   grass, plants, tress

o   areas of high use/low use

·      Stress use of a key and colors

·      Have them write a short paragraph about their favorite place in the school yard and why

  3. Mapping the School Yard Map (Graph)

·      detailed description, have them work in a group to complete it

o   determine directions: N, S, E, W

o   building length in paces (describe difference in strides)

o   distance of trees/objects from school

·      talk about how to make it to scale

  4. Have them talk in groups and compare the two maps. Imagine them as one map, where is a good place to put a garden? Why? Have them fill out worksheets for next steps in groups and then share with class  

o   Materials

  Colored pencils

 Already drawn map of the school/graph paper

  Next steps worksheet

  Paper/notebooks

Comments:

            Mapping the schoolyard was by far the most challenging for the students. My original goal had been to have the students create two maps: a technical map drawn to scale of the buildings, as well as an observation map that had areas of shade, sun, areas of high and low traffic, etc. I was going to have the students compare the two maps to find where the best spot for the garden would be. At the beginning of class I explained in detail and drew various diagrams to explain what drawing something to scale even meant because I assumed it was a topic that had not been introduced before. The maps were tricky. Not only was this the first time the idea of drawing something to scale had been introduced to the kids, we also didn’t have the right materials. I had no money to buy meter sticks, nor did the school nor the Ministry of Education, so I had to improvise and told the kids to measure using their feet. I made sure to emphasize that they were to use only one person’s feet to measure, so that it would be consistent and that each map would be slightly different because everyone had a different sized foot.

            The kids really had  a hard time grasping the idea of scale.  They struggled with it and they asked LOTS of questions, which was good because I could see they were trying to understand.

            The activity may not have turned out like I had hoped it would, but I think it was a good challenge for the kids. I did have a few students say in the evaluations that the mapping activity was their favorite, which made it a success in my eyes. One of my goals for these lesson plans was to reach out to different learning styles. Even if I only had a handful of kids who enjoyed, and responded to the mapping activity, that is a handful of kids who’s learning style I reached. 

           Below is an example of a map on of the students did. I ended up modifying the activity and using a pre-drawn map of the buildings and asking the kids to simply measure the buildings and then overlay the map with an observation map.