Lesson Overview:
This lesson blends math and art with literature using Aesop's fable, "The Crow and the Pitcher." The class will discuss the fable and its meaning. Each student will design his or her own puppet and act out the fable using pebbles and water in containers. Students will also make predictions and then compare them to actual results.
Length of Lesson:
Two 45-minute periods
Notes:
This lesson is particularly suitable for grade 3.
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- Discuss "The Crow and the Pitcher" fable
- Create a crow sock puppet
- Use prediction skills
- Use measurement skills
- Use calculation skills
- Use puppets to dramatize the fable
Supplies:
- Towels or newspaper (to cover tables before starting)
- 1 bud vase for each student (or any other container that has a narrow opening)
- Measuring cup
- Water
- Pebbles, 1 bowl per table [Note: Be sure the pebbles fit through the opening of the vase]
- 1 black sock for each student
- 1 tube of yellow fabric paint per table
- 1 bottle of fabric glue per table
- 2 googley eyes per student
- Pencils
- Index cards
- Tape
- Crayons/markers
- Paper
Instructional Plan:
Note: The version of "The Crow and the Pitcher" by Tom Paxton is excellent. (It is referenced in the "Sources" section.) Paxton has turned it into a rhyming poem, and it may be fun to omit the second of the pairs of rhyming words and have the students fill in the blanks! Also, an online version of the Aesop Fable edition can be found at children's author Rick Walton's Web site, the The Crow and the Pitcher. Before beginning the lesson, set out the supplies to make the sock puppet and cover them so they are concealed from the students.
Day 1
Begin the lesson by asking the class, "Please raise your hand if you have you ever been so thirsty that you said, 'I'm dying of thirst!'" Call on those students who raised their hands and ask them to describe how they felt and how they were able to relieve their thirst and get something to drink. (Chart their responses on the board or chart paper for reference later in the lesson on Day 2.)
Introduce the well-known fable by Aesop "The Crow and the Pitcher". Explain that the crow in this fable was also thirsty and felt the same way they had just discussed. He was dying of thirst!
Briefly review that a fable is type of story with a moral or lesson. Explain that the moral of a fable is what the reader learns from it.
Before you begin to read the fable, encourage the students to listen to discover how the crow solved his problem. Then, read "The Crow and the Pitcher" to the class using as much dramatic emphasis as possible. When you have finished reading the fable discuss what its moral might be. This could be done in a whole class discussion or students could partner and share. As examples any of the following morals could apply to this story.
- Necessity is the mother of invention.
- Little by little does the trick.
- Where there is a will there is a way.
- Do not give up even when it seems impossible
- Try hard; even the most difficult problems can be solved.
- List the students' ideas on the board and see if there is a common theme to them. Generalize one moral that could be applied to the story. Conclude this section of the lesson, by asking the students if they have read any other stories that have a moral. Have students talk about the story and its moral.
Conclude the lesson by making the crow sock puppet.
Model the steps in making the puppet for the students using the supplies you had laid out at the beginning of class. Glue two eyes to the sock and draw a beak with yellow fabric paint (see illustration below). After you have modeled this, pass out the supplies to the students and have them create their puppet. Tell students they will wear their sock puppets the next day to act out the fable.
Distribute the example of a Crow Sock Puppet Design handout.
Day Two
Teacher Note: Have the supplies for today's lesson laid out prior to the class. Before doing this activity with the students, do it yourself, so you will know approximately how much water you will need for each student. Also, prepare the prediction chart (see below) in advance.
Review the fable with the students and have them explain how the crow solved his problem. Ask them if they think that the crow's strategy would really work. If no, ask them why not. If yes, ask them to explain how. Ask students how they could test the crow's strategy to find out for themselves. When they guess it, reveal the supplies for the project. If they have trouble guessing, then reveal the supplies to give them a hint.
Example:
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Prediction
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Actual
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Difference
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Demonstrate how to measure the water and carefully pour it into the container. Then ask students how many pebbles they think it will take to make the water rise to the top.
Example: "I predict it will take 42 pebbles."
- Use the crow puppet to move pebbles into the container and count as you drop them in.
- It actually took 49 pebbles.
- How much was the difference between my prediction and how many pebbles it actually took? Students can work individually or in pairs to solve the problem. Then ask for someone to come to the board to show how they arrived at their answer.
- Model how to complete the chart.
Distribute the supplies (vases, water, measuring cup, and pebbles) to the students. Have them pour the measured amount of water into the vase. Ask them to predict the number of pebbles it will take to make the water rise to the top. Have one student from the pair/group, come to the chart and list the group's prediction.
Discuss how students can dramatize adding pebbles. What kind of voices will they use? What gestures might they use? How would a thirsty crow act? Then, have the students begin to use the sock puppet to add the pebbles to the water counting dramatically as they do so.
Discuss what you and the students liked about how others used their puppets dramatically. Refer to the list from Day 1 with students' comments on how they felt if they were dying of thirst. Ask if any of their dramatizations showed these feelings?
After the students have added the pebbles, have one member of the group come to the chart and record the number it actually took for the water to rise to the top. Then have the students take out paper to figure the differences for all the groups. The group who had the closest prediction, can read the fable aloud to their classmates, while acting out the fable.
Finally, have the students return their supplies and clean their work area. When the students have returned to their seats, again ask them for the moral of the story. Discuss the moral and ask students to think of times when the moral applied to them or someone they know. To conclude the lesson, discuss why we have morals in stories and how can they help us.
Assessment:
Using the Assessment Rubric, students will be:
- assessed on completion of puppet with the required components (2 eyes and a beak).
- evaluated on their ability to predict.
- assessed on the accuracy of their subtraction.
- assessed on their ability to dramatize the fable.
Extensions:
- Students use data from chart to create a bar graph showing rocks predicted and used.
- Students create a drawing that represents the moral of the story ("little by little will work every time").
- Students think of a moral, then write and illustrate their own short fable.
Teacher Tip: Teacher could make a poster of the fable and display it on the wall view the following pictures on websites
Sources:
Print:
- Paxton, Tom. Aesop's Fables. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1988.
Web:
Authors:
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Genevieve Jackson
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA
