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“The Mendenhall Glacier” Informational ELA Bundle & Equivalent Fractions Math Bundle

4th Grade • Lesson Plan Bundle
$10.00
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Quick Facts

Subject: ELA, Informational, Math, Numbers and Operations Fractions

Type: Lesson Plan Bundle

Skills: ELA:

  • Work with partners to collaborate, ask and answer text dependent questions with the support of strategic sentence frames
  • Brainstorm, plan and write their own informational "book" based on causes & effects
  • Participate in a science connection activity
  • Write a Haiku poem based on glaciers and ice cubes
Math: Equivalent Fractions, Multiplying to Create Equivalent Fractions, Dividing to Create Equivalent Fractions, Compare Fractions (<, >, or =)

Materials Needed: ELA:

  • Blank pieces of white paper (2 per student)
  • Lined paper
  • Pencils, crayons
  • Document camera/chart paper/ or whiteboard (used for examples)
Math: blank paper (3 pieces per student), pencil, crayons/colored pencils, document camera or whiteboard, scissors (if students are creating their game cards), Optional: student dry erase boards and markers

Printable Resources: ELA:  Required:

  • student copies of the informational texts: "The Mendenhall Glacier" and "Thermal Expansion" (1 copy of each per student)
  • 1 copy of pictures from the document (color copy if possible)
Math: Optional: printable game cards (1 set per group); Optional: printable "Exit Slips" (1 copy per student) as an optional assessment component

CCSS: RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, 4.NF.A.1

File Type: PDF Document

Lesson Plan Description

This ELA & Math bundle contains:

ELA: 

Engaging students in reading and developing reading for meaning skills is a foundational goal for 3rd graders. This bundle of 4 lessons includes “closer looking” and close reading of an included informational text “The Mendenhall Glacier”.  Your students will:

  • Segment 1: collaborate with partners in order to analyze and draw inferences about photographs of an unknown location
  • Segment 2: students will produce a “book”; which includes: cause and effect, vocabulary, and key details
  • Segment 3: analyze a second text source to continue their creation of a book which includes: cause and effect, vocabulary, and key details.
  • BONUS- Segment 4: create a visual comparison of glaciers and ice cubes and write a Haiku poem that captures the intent of the text.

Math:

This bundle of lesson plans is broken down into 3 separate segments (30-60 minutes each) addressing Numbers and Operations-Fractions: recognizing and generating equivalent fractions (4.NF.A.1). These lessons included: key vocabulary, helpful notes for reference, generating and identifying fractions through both multiplication and division, guided and independent practice of concept, and a game to reinforce the concept of equivalent fractions.

  • Segment 1: students will generate equivalent fractions through multiplication (n x a)/ (n x b).
  • Segment 2: students will generate equivalent fractions through division (a ÷ n) / (b ÷ n).
  • Segment 3: students will generate equivalent fractions using both multiplication and division.

These lessons can be taught over the span of a half day or you can use the lessons independently, broken up over several days.