Lesson Sketch for EDT 313 Investigation Hook lesson

Individuals completing this plan: Caroline Green and Maura Cullen

Lesson title: Three Little Pigs Investigation Topic: Construction

2 Early Learning & Development Content Standards indicators:

Science/Cognitive: Explore objects, materials, and events in the environment.
Language/Literacy: Use words acquired through conversations and shared reading experiences
(vocabulary).

Instructional objectives: list 2- 3 observable/measurable objectives for this lesson. Use precise language w/
action verbs.
The student will:
1. The student will be able to recognize the difference between weak and strong materials.

2. The student will be able to use vocabulary words from “Three Little Pigs” to describe
buildings and construction.

3. The student will be able to determine the strongest materials by manipulating hay, sticks,
and brick.

Experience(s): Describe authentic (real life, hands-on not representational) materials and enticing/ creative
experiences in which children are actively engaged. Experiences should encourage experimentation, problem
solving and language development. How will the experience(s) inform you on the children’s prior knowledge and
interest in the topic? How can you use this data to inform the development of your Integrated Investigation Plan?

Authentic materials: sticks, straw/hay, brick, clay, etc.

Experience: The lesson will begin with reading “The Three Little Pigs” during circle time. After
the pigs build their houses in the story, the teacher will pause and there would be a piece of brick
and some sticks and straw to give students the opportunity to manipulate each object. Students
can try to break each object to determine if it is weak or strong. At the end of the story, students
will be asked “Why do you think the straw and sticks fell down and not the brick when the wolf
huffed and puffed?” to reiterate events in the story. They would discuss how brick is stronger
than sticks, and sticks are stronger than straw. We will also ask students “what material would
you use to build your house?” to scaffold their knowledge of when they will construct their own
buildings next week. This will inform prior knowledge of how familiar they are with the
materials. This will be used in the investigation as they will know the best/strongest materials to
use when creating their own structures.

Assessment of student learning:

1. Data to be collected- If students use vocabulary words (straw, sticks, brick) learned from
the story and can recognize the difference between weak and strong materials by
manipulating the objects.

2. Method used to record/aggregate data- Check sheet with students’ names and one column
per material if the student was able to identify if the object as weak or strong
 3. Interpretation of assessment data-This will help build current knowledge of materials and
see what students already know. Using this, teachers can see which materials need more
discussion or exposure for students to master the concept.

Reflection on Lesson

Our lesson was engaging as the students seemed to enjoy manipulating the straw, sticks,

and brick from the events in the story. We chose this experience to simulate real events from the

book and bring the characters to greater life by having the students be a part of it. Using

authentic, real world objects, the students were able to determine which material was weak if it

broke or strong if it stayed together. They had the opportunity to physically see why the wolf was

able to blow down houses made of straw and sticks in comparison to bricks as they used the

objects. We wanted to read this book as our hook experience so students could see the materials

they would be using in our future individual lessons. We chose the objectives so students could

master the concept of weak vs. strong and be introduced to the vocabulary words of the materials

(straw, sticks, brick).

We think the children achieved the instructional objectives because almost every student

was able to identify the weak and strong materials when asked. They manipulated them

throughout the story depending on which house the wolf was trying to blow down at the time,

and the class made predictions based on how easily the materials broke. There are three students

who are nonverbal in this classroom, so they made comparisons by physically manipulating each

material and trying to make them break instead of verbally identifying them. When given the

opportunity, one of these students did not attempt to break the brick and another child did not try

to snap the stick. We think that giving them the materials in an individual situation may help

them remain focused to try the task.

 This experience provided information for future instruction because students are now

familiar with the objects to determine whether or not they are good for building a strong

structure. Our individual lesson plans involve creating their own structure based on weak and

strong materials, then they will test them to see whether or not they can hold together with

objects on them. When we asked students what material they would want to use for their

structure, they said “brick”, knowing this is the stronger material. This was used as a scaffolding

technique for our next activities.