Lesson Plan: Bears in the Boat, Bears on the Beach

Teacher: Ilana Haas

I.

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Content and Standards: 2.1.K.F: Use concrete objects to solve addition

problems; 2.2.K.B: Represent and explain the results of adding sets of objects
up to and including ten, using math vocabulary

II.

Prerequisites: Prior to this lesson, students must be able to demonstrate one-to-one

correspondence, and identify numbers 1 to 10.

III.

Essential Questions: How can two numbers make another number? How can we
use objects to show how two numbers can make another number? If we have a
number of items and just regroup the items, do we have the same amount of items
we started with?

IV.

Instructional Objective: SWBAT add or compose numbers through the use of

concreted objects, such as plastic bears. They will also be able to understand that
changing the grouping of objects that represent the number does not change the
value of the objects.

V.

Instructional Procedures: I will introduce the lesson by explaining to students what

we will be doing and learning to do from the lesson: showing how two numbers can
be put together to create a bigger number. We will be representing this through the
use of plastic bears. I will demonstrate this by placing a number of laminated pictures
of bears on the white board. I will ask the students to count and tell me how many
bears I have on the white board. I will then push a few of the bears away so that
there are two distinguishable linear lines of bears. My question to the students will
then be: How many bears are on the board now? Did my number of bears on the
board change? Why or why not? I will explain to the students that just because I
moved some of the bears over, that did not mean my number of bears changed. I will
have the students tell me how many bears are in one group and how many are in
another. We will write the number sentence for this. We will do this for a few other
numbers. I will have one student model the bears and number sentence on the board
and the rest of the students can follow along with their own bear counters. After we
have done a few of these, I will explain to the students what they will be doing on
their own. Each student will get a bear addition sheet with blank number sentences
on them. They will also get a plastic dish that we will refer to as the boat, as well as
a bunch of plastic bears and a die. Students will roll their die and count the number of

pips on the die. That will be the number of bears the will put in their boat. They will
write this number in the first space in the number line on the left. The second time
they roll the die, the number it lands on will be the number of bears that students will
place in front of them on their table, or on land. They will write this number on the
number sentence space on the right of the other space after the + sign. They will
then count up all of their bears and write the number in the space after the = sign.
We will do the first couple of these as a class so the students can get a hang of it
before they do it on their own.
VI.

Materials and Equipment: Laminated pictures of cartoon bears with magnets on the
back to use as manipulatives for demonstration on the white board; dry erase
markers for writing out the number sentence depicted by the bears; at least twelve
plastic bears for each student to use as manipulatives; a die for each student; bear
addition number sentence work sheet to record their numbers; pencils.

VII.

Assessment/Evaluation: As the students work, I will go around the room to make

sure that they are following the directions of the activity and if they are understanding
the use of the number sentence. When the students are done with this activity, I will
have them share some of the number sentences that came out of the game and the
answers they got to see how that reflects their understanding of the concepts.

VIII.

Differentiation: Individualized Activities: For my students who struggle with these

concepts, I will work with them in a small group with simple addition and story
problems relating to the bears. I will omit the use of the number sentence sheet, and
instead, focus on the visual aspect of using the manipulatives to represent number
stories. To reinforce the concepts for the rest of the class, I will include in their weekly
homework packet a math sheet that has students add the number of pips on two
faces of a die. For the students who need more of a challenge, I will supply them with
dominoes. They will add using the pips on each half of the domino and will record
their numbers using the bear addition sheet.

IX.

Technology: N/A

X.

Self-Assessment: For determining my self-assessment, I will gage how the students

used the material presented in the lesson to assist them with the activity. I will also
need to make sure that I explained things clearly enough in a sequential way to
ensure that students were clear about the activity.