Throughout Berkeley County School District, our teachers conduct lessons that make a difference. Recently, Brooklynne Chappelear's third grade class at Devon Forest Elementary had a sweet unit review that allowed students to take what they'd learned in class and apply it to running a donut shop.
Who: Brooklynne Chappelear and her third grade class
Where: Devon Forest Elementary
What: To translate fractions and critical reading skills to a real-world scenario, Brooklynne Chappelear transformed her classroom into a donut shop for a day. Students rotated through six areas, three focused on reading and three focused on math, and used what they'd learning in their traditionally structured lessons in a creative and exciting way.
Students used what they'd learning about equivalent fractions to follow recipes and create drinks for their shops. Plus, they had to identify fractions on a number line to create a display case for their donut shop with enough room for all their tasty treats. Lastly, they used personalized order forms to create their own fraction set of donuts. They decorated and constructed carry-out boxes, and finished the activity by representing each flavor of custom donuts with fractions.
With donut-themed text and corresponding activities, students practiced being able to go back to a piece of text and find supporting evidence and answers to proposed questions. To practice finding the main idea of a passage, students read and grouped task cards into different main ideas. They practiced matching the correct suffixes to selected words by analyzing the context clues of a passage. Finally, they compared and contrasted muffins and donuts. Each of these activities allowed students to practice looking back in a story to find information, while also providing collaborative opportunities to enhance reading comprehension and vocabulary.
To add some extra fun, the room was decorated and the kids got to dress up in their very own hats and aprons. After the students completed each station, Ms. Chappelear approved their work and they received a sticker on their donut task log! At the end of the day, they turned in their completed task logs for hot cocoa and donuts!
Results: Students were highly engaged and were having so much fun they didn't realize they were learning the whole time. Additionally, having the students in small groups allowed the teacher to observe students more closely and provide purposeful support for those who needed it.
Students’ self-confidence in their abilities with fractions in particular increased tremendously and they continued to be eager to explore fractions in general. Modeling equivalent fractions was an area that proved to need some additional reinforcement, so instruction after Donut Day focused on strengthening that skill. The majority of the class benefitted from that additional support and the assessments proved those instructional decisions beneficial, too.
