How Big is a Foot?
by: Rolf Myller
Click the picture of the book for podcast and lesson.
Click the picture of the book for podcast and lesson.
Story Summary:
The king demands that a bed be made using the measure of his foot, but the carpenter uses his own foot as a measure instead. This causes the dimensions to be smaller than expected.
Learning Objective:
The students will create non-standard units and explore the need for a standard unit of measure.
Materials:
foot patterns (12" foot and 6" foot)
thumb pattern (1 inch wide thumb)
bulletin board paper cut into rectangles to be used as a bed to measure using the foot patters (make paper into lengths and widths such as 2'x3' and 4'x 5')
glue sticks
rulers
Procedure:
Read the story and pause when the queen's bed is found to be too small. Allow the children to brainstorm about why the bed was too small for the queen. The apprentice's foot was smaller than the king's foot. Why is this a problem? What could be done to solve the problem? Finish reading the book. Work in groups to measure the beds. Glue the foot patterns on the length and width of the paper beds. Share and discuss results. Talk about how silly it was to use the feet and discuss today's standard unit of measuring. Hold up the foot pattern and place on the 12" ruler. Discuss and show them how the ruler will be better to use than the paper foot pattern.
I always extend the story by discussing that the king later wanted to make other things for the queen, but what if what he wanted to make was smaller than a foot. I talk about how the king would probably use his thumb. I show the paper thumb patterns. I give all the kids some thumbs and a foot to see how many thumbs would fit on the foot. The thumbs are 1 inch and if you glue them on lengthwise, then 12 thumbs will fit onto the foot. (* See the image at the bottom of this page)
Text-to-Text Connections :
"Feet Man and Mrs. Tiny" by Gina Freschet - This book is a hilarious book that describes many different kinds of feet such as - gigantic feet, titanic feet, humungous feet, fungus feet, stubby feet, grubby feet... and the list goes on. This would be good for a lesson on adjectives.
"The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=1008
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/seuss.php#The_Foot_Book
Links to other websites:
http://www.ixl.com/?gclid=COyGqNjnvakCFUnr7QodLS32gw
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L635
http://sites.google.com/site/howbigisafoot/teacher-page
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-big-is-foot.html
http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/0-941355-32-2_L3.pdf
http://www.mwpenn.com/lesson-plans/lesson-plan-for-how-big-is-a-foot/
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2016.html
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/viewWorkDetail.do?workId=1257579&
The king demands that a bed be made using the measure of his foot, but the carpenter uses his own foot as a measure instead. This causes the dimensions to be smaller than expected.
Learning Objective:
The students will create non-standard units and explore the need for a standard unit of measure.
Materials:
foot patterns (12" foot and 6" foot)
thumb pattern (1 inch wide thumb)
bulletin board paper cut into rectangles to be used as a bed to measure using the foot patters (make paper into lengths and widths such as 2'x3' and 4'x 5')
glue sticks
rulers
Procedure:
Read the story and pause when the queen's bed is found to be too small. Allow the children to brainstorm about why the bed was too small for the queen. The apprentice's foot was smaller than the king's foot. Why is this a problem? What could be done to solve the problem? Finish reading the book. Work in groups to measure the beds. Glue the foot patterns on the length and width of the paper beds. Share and discuss results. Talk about how silly it was to use the feet and discuss today's standard unit of measuring. Hold up the foot pattern and place on the 12" ruler. Discuss and show them how the ruler will be better to use than the paper foot pattern.
I always extend the story by discussing that the king later wanted to make other things for the queen, but what if what he wanted to make was smaller than a foot. I talk about how the king would probably use his thumb. I show the paper thumb patterns. I give all the kids some thumbs and a foot to see how many thumbs would fit on the foot. The thumbs are 1 inch and if you glue them on lengthwise, then 12 thumbs will fit onto the foot. (* See the image at the bottom of this page)
Text-to-Text Connections :
"Feet Man and Mrs. Tiny" by Gina Freschet - This book is a hilarious book that describes many different kinds of feet such as - gigantic feet, titanic feet, humungous feet, fungus feet, stubby feet, grubby feet... and the list goes on. This would be good for a lesson on adjectives.
"The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=1008
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/seuss.php#The_Foot_Book
Links to other websites:
http://www.ixl.com/?gclid=COyGqNjnvakCFUnr7QodLS32gw
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L635
http://sites.google.com/site/howbigisafoot/teacher-page
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-big-is-foot.html
http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/0-941355-32-2_L3.pdf
http://www.mwpenn.com/lesson-plans/lesson-plan-for-how-big-is-a-foot/
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2016.html
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/viewWorkDetail.do?workId=1257579&