LENGTH LESSON: PLAYDOUGH SNAKES

DATE: AGE/YEAR: SETTING: DURATION: GROUP SIZE:

5.8.21 Reception School 60 minuets Whole Class
OUTLINE OF SESSION (INCLUDING FOCUS AREA(S)): KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, PROCESSES, DISPOSITIONS FOCUS:

Students will engage in mathematics to develop their Numeracy, literacy, critical & creative thinking, personal &
measurement understanding, specifically length. This will be social capability, perseverance, confidence, responsibility,
achieved through exploring and creating different lengths with creativity, problem solving, enjoyment, social and emotional
play dough. development, persistence, independence/group work.

LEARNING INTENTION(S): CURRICULUM LINKS: [Australian Curriculum]

Students will learn about length through play and use everyday Content Descriptor: Using units of measurement: ACMMG006
language to describe objects lengths. Students will also be able
to express their knowledge and share those with their peers and Progressions: UuM1: Describing length
educators.

SEQUENCE OF TEACHING POINTS TO REMEMBER

Lesson Focus: Introducing length as a unit of measurement

The Key Idea: To compare different lengths
Acknowledgement of Country: Acknowledge country before
lesson commences.
RESOURCES:
- Learning intentions and success criteria
- White board or butchers’ paper and appropriate writing
utensils to create word wall/anchor chart
- Play Dough
- Scaffolding sheet [template]
Tuning In Activity: Finding something longer/shorter/same size
than your hand within the classroom [give a 3 minute time limit
and do one length at a time.
Learning Activities:
- Play Dough Snakes
- Reviewing lengths on PowerPoint slides
- Word wall/anchor chart
Reflection: refer to questions down below
TEACHING SEQUENCE:
- After the tuning in activity, explain that this lesson we will
be exploring length and playdough.
- Send students back to their desk and begin exploring
length and play dough, give no real instructions just
observe and see what the students create.
- After 10 minutes of free play with the play dough bring
the students back together as a group and explain what
today’s lesson will be about [creating long, short and
medium snakes]
- Revisit a word wall/anchor chart with the students on
what they know about length and what they want to
know.
- Students will then go back to their desks and begin
creating long, short and medium snakes. Once they have
made a snake of each size get the students to find
objects which are longer, shorter or the same size.
[See differentiation notes for students who finish early]
- PowerPoint sorting slide
KEY VOCABULARY & KEY QUESTIONS:
- I wonder what length snake you can make.
- What length have you made?
- What can we do with the different sorted lengths?
- What is length
- Can you make a short snake?
- Can you make a snake longer than your drink bottle?
- Can you find something that is shorter than your longest
snake?
Compare, Explore, Find, Describe, Identify, Sort, Investigate,
Order, Length, Long [er/est], Short [er/est], Tall [er/est], Short
[er/est], Same, How long/short, As short/long as, Shorter/longer
than, Same size as.
DIFFERENTIATION:
Further elaborations to the overall unit plan
Most differentiation will occur as the lesson progresses and as
the unit plan unfolds
- Educators must be able to adapt and be prepared to
explain/demonstrate different lengths and work with the
children who may be stuck.
- Use student modelling to showcase learning
- Where possible/relevant relate measurement concepts to
student’s home life/cultures
 - Once the students have finished sorting the trays, pack -
up and bring them back together for a lesson reflection. -
Tuning in Activity:
- Give the students a 3-minute timer to find an object which is -
longer than their hand. Put the count down timer on the
board so they can visually see the time remaining. If the
teacher wishes it can be made a no talking task and race
between peers to see who can find something the quickest. -
Once object is found come sit back down at the mat and
wait for peers. This can then be repeated with smaller objects -
and same size objects.
Reflection:
- Reflect on the lesson, ask students if they want to share
what they learnt [use questions below as a prompt]
- What did we learn?
- Did you learn something new?
- Anything you want to know?
- Do you want to share you work?
- Any words you don’t know?
- Any words which are similar?
- Can you think of any new words?
Have a ‘now’ and ‘then/next’ card on the board
Display the learning intention and success criteria
- Offer example images for the students who are unsure on
how to start
If students finish early, give second task
[find objects within the classroom that are longer, shorter
and the same size as your snakes]
[in pairs: finding snakes that are longer/shorter/same than
your partners snakes]
If the students finish this task early ask them to help other
students who have not yet finished [peer learning]
Use SSO to float and support all students who need it while
the teacher works with the low ability group
- Work closely with ‘x’ student to ensure they understand
what a long length is, working one aspect at a time. Use a
more structured template with length examples as a guide.
[this consideration has come from observations in previous
lessons]
ASSESSMENT
Formative: Use this experience as a formative assessment to
assess knowledge and understanding [photographs and
conversations]. [see appendix]
Summative: Informal methods can be used to gain an
understanding on what the students know and what areas they
are most interested in, this will be achieved through ongoing
teaching observations.