AVON GROVE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL

 

Teacher:  Rachel Moyer (now Leibrandt)                Date:  Friday, 1/10/03

Observer:  Principal                                                   Grade:  3, Math

                                                                                    Time:  11:40 – 12:40

 

 

Planning:  Lesson plans are written for the week.  The objective for today’s lesson states:  The students will apply the value of coins and count groups of coins.

 

 

Instructional Technique:

            Students are engaged in reviewing a homework worksheet on telling time as the observer enters.  They are looking at clocks and stating the time on the face of each example.  Students are asked to put the worksheet in their folders.

            Ms. Moyer asks, “Who knows what we are studying now that we are done time?”  A student responds, “Money.”  Ms. Moyer asks, “Why is money so important?”  She encourages students to think about this.  Students brainstorm ideas and Ms. Moyer explains that today they are going to talk about coins.  Moving around the room, a student is asked to take a coin from the baggies.  He moves to the front of the room, puts it on the board, and tells the students that it is a quarter and it is worth 25 cents.  Ms. Moyer asks him to write 25 cents under the coin.  Students are asked if there is another way they can write 25 cents.  A student volunteers and does so correctly.  Ms. Moyer praises the student and the class claps.  This procedure continues.  A student writes 5 cents incorrectly but is given the opportunity to self-correct as she views other examples.  Ms. Moyer praises her for her thinking and tells her to move a marble to the box.  She then gives a mini lesson on place value using money.  The decimal separates the dollar from the cents.  Ms. Moyer challenges students by writing $0.50 on the board and asks them how they would say that.  She uses the example of the penny- $0.01.

            A student is asked to come up and put the coins in value order from smallest to largest.  Students clap at student’s success.  Ms. Moyer asks the class, “Why did I say value not size?”  A student responds.  Ms. Moyer asks students to show a strategy for counting money.  Several students volunteer.  Ms. Moyer places coins on the board, and then asks for a volunteer to count the money.  The student moves to the board and explains that she is putting it in order from biggest to smallest. She then counts the coins aloud and writes the total on the board.  Ms. Moyer asks, “How many of you use this strategy?”  Students raise their hands.  Ms. Moyer explains that she loves quarters.  She asks the students what the pattern is if they count quarters.  They count up to a dollar.  Ms. Moyer explains she likes to make it easier on herself by putting her quarters together to make fifty cents.  The class counts again from fifty cents.  A student volunteers that the five pennies make a nickel.  Ms. Moyer praises the student for her thinking and lets her take a marble.  They recount two quarters as fifty, count out the dimes, and end with a nickel. 

            Ms. Moyer explains that they are going to work in cooperative groups to come up with a strategy for counting money.  She hands out a bag of coins to each group.  Students are told that every student is to be given an opportunity to share their ideas.  After several minutes, each group of students are asked to share their strategy by moving to the board and counting their coins for the class. 

            Ms. Moyer told the class how she really liked how everyone participated in each group.  Students are asked to take out worksheet 518.  She explains that all they will be doing is counting change, just like they did on the board.  When they are finished, they may leave it on their desk and do another activity.  As students work, Ms. Moyer moves throughout the room.  She moves to the board to clarify the directions.  Students continue to work.  The observer did not stay for the closure.  

 

Commendations/ Recommendations