Name: Hannah Reed, Lauren Best

**This was a co-taught lesson

Title of Unit: The Metric System

Title of Lesson: Mini Metric Olympics
Grade Level: 4th
Goal: Students will develop a better understanding of metric units.
Objectives:
1. The students will
be able to make
reasonable
estimations using
metric
measurements.
2. The students will
be able to
accurately
measure length,
volume, and mass
using metric units.

Standards:
PA CORE (MATH)
1.-2. CC.2.4.4.A.1: Solve
problems involving
measurement and
conversions from a larger
unit to a smaller unit
Common Core (Math)
1.-2. 2.3.4.A: Use
concrete objects to
demonstrate an
understanding of
measurement quantities
(e.g., length, weight,
temperature)
NCTM
1.-2. F. Select and apply
appropriate NCTM
standard units and tools
to measure length, area,
and volume, wright, time,
temperature, and size of
angles
Practice Standards:
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP
5 Use appropriate tools
strategically.
Common Core (Science)
1.-2. 3.1.4 B6: Science as
Inquiry

Formative Assessment:
1.-2. Students will be
estimating and measuring
using the metric system
during class.

Content Knowledge:
Prior: Students need to be familiar with how to use a balance, rulers, and
measuring cups. They will have already learned how to do subtraction.
Current: Students will be able to distinguish the difference between
measurements such as distance, mass, and volume (cm, g, and ml). Students will
also learn to make appropriate approximations.

Future: Students will learn how to convert units.

Procedures:
Lesson Beginning:
-

Bell Ringer: Four subtraction problems to get the students ready for the
mathematics involved in the lesson.
Miss. Best: Good afternoon fourth grade. Miss. Reed and I are passing out
a Do-Now activity to get your minds warmed up and prepared for
todays class. I know Mrs. Grejda has worked with you all year to make
sure you include two important parts when solving these kinds of math
problems. What two important parts must we include in our answers? 1.
The difference/the number, and 2. The LABEL!!

1) 5 cm3 cm= 2cm

2) 51 mL43 mL= 8mL

3) 85 g62 g= 23g
4) 15 mL8 mL= 7mL
-

Miss. Reed will go over each problem with the students

Motivation: We will bring up pictures of famous Olympic athletes on the

SmartBoard, and ask the students who they are and what activity they are
doing. This will get students thinking about the Olympics.

Miss. Reed: Do you know any of these people up here on the screen? Can
you identify the sport they are involved in? Who are they? How did they
become famous?
When students can identify a person/event, they get to touch the picture
to uncover the activity for the day. Under all of the pictures is the title of
our lesson: Mini-Metric Olympics.

Lesson Development:
-

Miss Best: Today we are going to be playing our own Olympic games! You
will be filling out this worksheet while doing the four different challenges.
Station one has the marble grab, station two involves squeezing the water
out of a sponge, station three will require you to throw a cotton ball, and
at station four you will be throwing straws. On your paper you will be
estimating the mass of the total amount of marbles you can grab, the
amount of water you can squeeze out of a sponge in terms of mL, and the
distance you can throw a cotton ball and a straw.

Miss. Reed and Miss. Best will do demonstrations at each station.

Miss. Best: You will not be making your estimations until you get to that
station. For example, we wont estimate how far we can throw the cotton
ball until we get to that station and take a look at how far a 1 or 10
centimeters is. At each station, you will get a chance to see how much a
gram is, how much 50mL is, and how much 1 cm is. This will give you a
better idea as to what to estimate.

Teacher: Once you write down an estimation, do not erase it. You will then
do the activity and write down your actual results. We are going to break
you into four groups. While you go around doing the different activities it
would be a good idea to have a partner or a group of three so that you
have someone recording your data for you while you do it. Once you are
done with the activity sit quietly, and we will rotate groups.

Miss. Reed: Be aware that this is a competition. You want to have the
closest estimations possible so that you have a lower score. The lower
your score, the better. Write down your Group number and the leader of
your group. You will need to know that later.

We will then break into four groups, based on recommendations made by

the classroom teacher, and known behaviors and academic abilities.

Miss. Reed will be running station #2. Mrs. Grejda will be running station
#3, and Miss. Best, in charge of station #3 and station #4. The instructor
at station #3 will be in charge of station #3 and# 4 since the students will
be doing similar activities at these two stations.

Each group will only have about five minutes at each station, before
rotating to a new station.

After each group has been at every station, we will gather the class back
up as a whole.

Teacher: Now, you need to add all of the numbers in the far right column,
under the heading score, to find your total. Students will be given a few
minutes to figure out their total.

Teacher: Who would like to share their individual total score?

Teacher: Now we want you to add your individual scores together to get a
group score. Once you have found your group score, your team leader
needs to come up and write it on the SmartBoard under your group.

Which station was your favorite, why? Were you surprised by any of the
actual measurements? Did you think the cotton ball would go further than
it did?

Lesson Ending:
-

Teacher: What measurement system did we use today? Was it the

standard measurement system or the metric measurement system?
o Students: Standard

Teacher: How did we measure mass? How about volume? What about
length?
o Students: With a balance; with a graduated cylinder; with a tape
measure

Teacher: What units did we use for each?

o Students: g; mL; cm

Teacher: Which system do you think is easier, standard or metric?

o Students: Metric, base ten number system

Teacher: Do you know how many countries use the standard system?
o Students: Only a couple, the United States being the only major
world power that still uses it

Teacher: Why do you think that countries use the metric system?
o Students: It is easier; you just multiply or divide by 10, 100, 1000,
etc. to get to the unit you need

Teacher: Do you think that the United States will ever use the metric
system more than the standard system?
o Students: No/Yes

***If time activity***

-

Teacher: Now that we have looked at different measurements lets do

some more estimating.

Pick several objects in the room, ask the class to estimate, and then find
the actual measure of the item. Use this to fill out a couple of examples on
the SmartBoard. Give the students the activity sheet and give them some
time to find some things that are the same measure as those given on the
worksheet.

Students will do a metric scavenger hunt. Their job will be to go around

the room finding objects they think are close to measurements written on
the hand-out. They will write the name of the object, the actual length of
the object, and then will find the difference between the actual and their
guess.

Materials: -

handouts
Station directions

Station #1 (Marble Grab)

-

Marbles
Bowl
Scale

Station #2 (Sponge Squeeze)

-

Sponge
Water
Bowl
Graduated Cylinder

Station #3 (Cotton Ball Shot Put)

-

Cotton balls
Rulers
Tape

Station #4 (Straw Javelin Throw)

-

Straws
Rulers
Tape

References: Mrs. Grejda, AIMS

Mode: independent, groups
Special Adaptations: Making specific groups based on the behavior and academic
level of the students. We adapted this lesson from having six stations to four
stations. We also changed the worksheet a little bit by removing the labels to get
students to write labels, and the correct ones at that.
Anticipated Difficulties: Students may use the inches side of the ruler instead of
the cm side. They may not remember to take the tare of the bowl when doing the
marble grab. Students may miscalculate. Students may erase their estimations in
order get a better score.
Reflection: When reflecting on this lesson, overall it went very well. The students
were excited to use the metric system and measurements in a different way. They

worked well in the different stations using the metric system. They measured water
in milliliters, they measured the distance they threw a couple of objects in
centimeters, and they measured the mass of marbles they can grab with one hand
in kilograms. It is also important to have good classroom management and clearly
explain rules because there is so much going on at one time.

**This lesson was co-taught. It would have to be adjusted in order for one
teacher to do this lesson. One or two events would be done each day until all
of the Olympic events were completed.