Plan for Students Learning

Planners Name: Mica Lewis

Topic: Counting Title of Lesson: The Ants Go Marching Grade Level: Pre-k
Academic Standards for Lesson
2.1 PK.A.1 Know number names and the count sequence.
2.1 PK.A.2 Count to tell the number of objects.
Essential Question
How can we use counting to find out the total amount?
Objectives (as many as needed for the lesson, usually no more than three):

Objective 1: Students will sing along to and participate in activities to develop an

understanding of quantities represented by the numerals 1 through 10.
Objective 2: Students will
Learning Activities
1. Introduction/Activation Strategy: Ask the students if anyone knows how to march.
Have the students demonstrate how to march. Explain that marching is done by
stomping your feet at a steady pace. Ask the students if they know of anything that
marches, such as a marching band or a parade. Explain to the students that sometimes
ants march in a line. Ask if any students have ever seen this happen. Ask students if
they every have counted those ants. Where are those ants going? What are they doing?
2. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks:
a. Model/Explicit Instruction: Show the book. Explain who the author is and who
the illustrator is. Ask the students to look at the cover. What do they see? Have
students think pair share with a partner what predictions they make based on the
cover of the story.
Explain the vocab: Hurrah, jive, and dine. Define the word and give an example.
- Hurrah: term which expresses joy or approval
- Jive: to dance enthusiastically
- Dine: eat dinner.
For each term, use in a sentence and have the students demonstrate the action. For
example, have the students say hurrah enthusiastically, have the students do their best
jive, and have students pretend to dine.
Begin reading the story. Encourage the students to sing along with you. As you read,
demonstrate with your fingers the number of ants marching during each section, and
encourage students to do the same. Have students stomp their feet or bang the table
when they go boom, boom, boom. When you read hurrah, sing it as a loud joyous
cheer. If possible, demonstrate the actions taken by the ants throughout the book, such
as pretending to suck your thumb, or tying your shoe.
b. Guided Practice: After reading, ask the students what their favorite part of the
book was. Ask the students if they remember how many ants went marching in the
book. Ask the students if they remember all of the silly things the littlest ant did.
 Write these on the board. Make sure to put the number next to the silly things.
Remind students to remember that there were 10 ants marching, so there were ten
actions that the little ant did. When you write them, count the numbers again as a
whole group.

c. Independent Practice: Have students re-create the marching ants. Call up students
one by one to be an ant. Have students count each ant (student) and have students
march around the room. As you call them up, ask students how many are up
currently, how many are left, and so on. At the end, count all the ants together as a
group.
3. Closure: As a last activity, have students go to their table and pick a point of the story,
with a certain number of ants. Have the students draw that many ants, and have one ant
doing the action of that scene. They need to make sure they have a correct number of
ants on the page. Provide a visual reference of the ants and their actions for the students
use.
Differentiation: Content, Process, or Product
Provide a visual reference of all the ants and their actions for the students in the book. As you
sing the song, demonstrate some of the actions for the students, and encourage students to do
the same. If students would prefer, when discussing what actions the ants are taking, the
students can demonstrate rather than verbally explain what the ant is doing. When counting the
ants, the students may use their fingers instead of verbally saying how many ants they are
counting.
Assessment: Formative or Summative

1. Formative Assessment (process): check to be sure the students counted the correct
number of ants on their picture.
Rubric/Checklist:
Materials/Resources/Technology
1. Materials students will need:
2. Materials teachers will need: Book, white board, worksheet organizer for independent
activity, cut out ants for visual demonstration.
3. Teachers preparation for the lesson:
Reflection (responses regarding strengths, areas needing improvement for next time, and
ideas for follow-up)