Todays date and implementation

Todays date: April 13, 2015

Date of implementation: TBD
Title of lesson
Lets Sort Seashells!
Age level and number
Age level: 5 year-olds
Number of students: 16
Curriculum Areas
Mathematical Thinking and Expression: Exploring, processing, and problem-solving
PA PreK standards
2.1 PK.A.2 Count to tell the number of objects
2.1 PK.A.3 Compare numbers
2.4 PK.A.4 Classify objects and count the number of objects in each category
Purpose
To have children practice sorting items in different categories and comparing and contrasting those
items.
Behavioral Objectives
Given sixteen shells, the children will sort each shell in the appropriate category on the pictograph
frame correctly.
After sorting shells in the appropriate category, children will determine which type of shell has the
most and least by successfully counting the shells in each category.
Following counting the shells, children will compare and contrast the shells by correctly telling
which shells are the biggest and which ones are the smallest.
Materials
Bag of many assorted seashells
What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Chart paper
Graph paper with the pictograph frame on it
Pencils
Motivation/Anticipatory Set
1. Anticipatory Set The teacher will activate children's prior learning/experience by asking them if
theyve ever searched for and collected seashells. After hearing some responses, teacher will allow a
few children to share their experiences. After children share their experiences, the teacher will pass
around a few shells and ask children to say how the shells look, how the shells feel, and talk about
the size of the shells. Then, ask children if they know what it sorting means. Explain afterwards.
The teacher will have chart paper next to her with two headings that read: Big and Small. The
children will take turns telling the teacher which category the shells, that they are manipulating,
belong in. Remind the children to pay close attention, because they will be sorting their own shells
later.
2. Motivation The teacher will explain to children that shells can have many different
characteristics. Also, ask children where they think the shell came from. After hearing some
responses, talk about how animals could have once lived in the seashells. A seashell used to be the
home of animal. After this discussion, the teacher will introduce the book, What Lives in a Shell?
Take the children through a picture walk of the book. After reading the book, tell students they are
going to work with a partner on putting the shells into different groups, and then counting them.
Procedures
1. After performing the anticipatory set, motivation, and reading aloud, What Lives in a
Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, the teacher will say to students, Now that weve
read a book about shells and their characteristics, lets look at our own shells and sort them
into categories.
2. Have a discussion about different sizes, shapes, and colors of shells. Talk to the children
about how animals used to live in these shells. Ask children what kinds of animals they think
lived in these shells.
3. Group children in pairs and have them sit next to each other. Pass out 15 different shells to
each group. Remind children to be very appropriate with the shells. To treat the shells nicely
and be very careful with them.
4. Each group of two will have a piece of chart paper with a basic pictograph frame on it. The
chart paper will have 4 hand-drawn pictures of each kind of shell in the bag on the bottom of
each column. The students will sort through their shells and place each shell above the
picture that it matches, one to each square.

5. When children are finished, the teacher will ask them to count how many of each shell there
were. The children will write this number at the top of each column. Then the teacher will
ask, Which shell has the most? Which shell has the least? What are the biggest shells?
Which ones are the smallest?

Assessment
The teacher will perform a formative assessment by walking around to each group and observing the
children sorting their shells on the pictograph.
The teacher will use a table to perform a summative assessment on each twosome and their ability to
correctly fill out the pictograph as well as correctly marking the numbers.
Date

Names in Group

Are shells
correctly sorted?

Are the numbers

and sizes correct?

Comments

Reflection on Planning
This was so fun to plan. When my group talked about implementing mathematics into a beach
themed lesson, I immediately thought of sorting shells and graphing them. I feel that children learn
best by engaging in a hands-on lesson. Manipulating shells gives them a real life, authentic
experience of whats on the beach. I feel that what could be difficult is if some shells may not look
exactly like the picture that I used. The young children may be confused on which category to put
their shell in. I will be walking around, though, performing a formative assessment by observing
them working in pairs. I will assist when needed.