Take Away Stories
In this lesson, learners will understand that mathematicians use their math skills in their daily lives by reading the interactive take away story, Ali Goes to the Market. Learners will create their own take away stories. This lesson is adapted from the San Francisco Unified School District.
Grade level Pre-K/Kindergarten
Subject Math
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✎ Whiteboard
✎ Dry erase markers
✎ Manipulatives (counters, snap cubes etc)
✎ Number paths
✎Tens Frames
Launch
Share with learners how mathematicians use their math skills all the time and forever, even as grownups. List off some places you’ve seen numbers and math in real life. “I use math in the morning when I make sure to give myself 30 minutes to get to school, I use math to count how many copies I need to make for my students, I even use math to buy school supplies like these erasers and scissors.”
Invite learners to think about a time they have used math in everyday life. They may utilize this sentence frame.
The time I used math in my everyday life was ______.
Have learners turn and talk.
Gather input from learners as to where they have used math in their everyday lives and reiterate the fact that math is all around us. Share with learners that one place you may have used math was in the supermarket picking up groceries, and in the kitchen cooking your family’s favorite recipes.
Introduce the text, Ali Goes to the Market.
“Let’s read about how Ali and his mom use their math skills at the market and in the kitchen.”
Utilize an interactive read aloud model (in the speakers’ notes are suggestions for what to ask learners during the read aloud).
Movement Break/Mindful Moment
Invite learners to stretch after such amazing math thinking! A simple movement break called 5,4,3,2,1
Do 5 star jumps
4 windmills
Take 3 deep breaths
Give a friend 2 high fives
And give yourself 1 big hug!
Activity
Tell learners they will be making their own take away story. Show them the following slides and explicitly model how create a take away story.
Gather input from learners as to what kind of take away stories they might create. List learners’ ideas on the whiteboard or in the slides.
Learners will be utilizing the student recording sheet. Monitor and support learners by asking what they want to write about, having them use sentence frames to describe their story.
Closing
Create a gallery walk of learners’ work. Encourage learners to answer the question “What’s happening in the story?”
Provide the sentence frames “First,” “Then,” “Now” to encourage learners to interpret their peers’ drawings and share utilizing the frames. For example, “First there were 5 birds. Then 1 bird flew away. Now there are 4 birds.”
Extension
Extension 1: Bring subtraction to life by engaging your learners with their favorite foods. Learners could bring in their favorite snack to share and verbally share their subtraction stories. “First I had 6 dates, then I ate 1. Now I have 5 left.”
Extension 2: Thank You, Omu
Read the book, “Thank You, Omu” by Oge Mora. Omú means queen in Igbo and is also what the author called her grandmother. It tells the story about generosity and feeding our community. Learners can discuss what kind of a person Omú is. What character traits would you use to describe her? What can we learn from Omú?
Extension 3: Invite learners to think about all the delicious meals we have eaten as a community. How can we share our food with our community? Does everyone have access to delicious meals? This can be an invitation to action. Learners can participate in local food drives.
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
In her book, Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations, Nawal Qarooni emphasizes the importance of exalting the inherent knowing of families and caregivers. She suggests creating authentic opportunities for collaboration between school personnel and caregivers. One of her suggestions are around asking families about food stories, family recipes, and traditions around food with thoughtful questions and suggested activities.
An invitation to your students’ families to share a special family recipe is one way of honoring families’ stories, traditions, and values.
