STEM Activity (3 petits cochons) - Lesson Plan

Date: November 22nd, 2021

Grade level: Grade 3
Duration: 60 minutes
Topic/Title: Science/STEM activity- Qu’elle maison sera la dernière debout ? (Which house will be the la
one standing?)
Resources:
- Boxes with LEGO, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, one roll of tape, and glue sticks,
plasticene
- Canva presentation
- Grade 3 science Alberta curriculum
General Learning Outcome:
3–7 Construct structures, using a variety of materials and designs, and compare the effectiveness of the
various materials and designs for their intended purposes.
Specific Learning Outcome: 3-7 (2,3)
2. Select appropriate materials for use in construction tasks and explain the choice of materials. Students
should demonstrate familiarity with a variety of materials, such as papers, woods, plastics, clay and metals.

3. Select tools that are suitable to particular tasks and materials and use them safely and effectively.

Timing Procedure Organisation

Write down all 4
Hook- Finger activity (Slide 2), If you were a little pig teams on the board
during recess, by
what would you build your house with? (Slide 3) giving them team
5 minutes Have students sit with their groups from readers theatre at the start of the lesson as names!
Team names:
they come in from recess. 1. Les Maisons en
Students will most likely notice Team names up on the board (this might also add to Briques
the hook as they will be very curious!) 2. Les Grand Loups
3. Les Féroces
Cochons
Finger activity on slide 2 4. L’équipe Soufflé
 Using the numbers above each of the houses on this slide, I would like you to As we go through the
show me with your fingers houses with the blow
o Which structure was the most stable? drier, have one
student erase a team
o Which structure was the least stable? if it was blown down
by the drier.
Turn and Talk: Slide 3 (Take 2 minutes, turn to the person next to you)
 Turn to your neighbour and tell them what type of material you would build During Turn and Talk:
Time 2 minutes on
your house with if you were one of the three little pigs?
my watch (students
will not be sharing
answers out loud just
yet)

Lesson introduction- Canva presentation

Slide 4: Which house will be the last one standing?!
5 minutes
to copy
materials Slide 5: You will be working together as a team to build one house!

1
10 minutes Slide 6: Copy the information into your science duotang, flip to this page, and copy
(planning) down both the materials and the adhesives you will have access to.
 You can draw a VERY simple drawing in the boxes of each material
(remember you only have 5 minutes)
Slide 7: Now, you will have 10 minutes to create a diagram of your house!
Remember to work as a TEAM!! Everyone’s diagrams should look pretty similar.

Slide 8: Once you have showed me your plan, I will give you a box of materials and
you can begin!!
 Slide 9 has a 10-minute timer, this way the students can keep track of how
much time they have left! If students finish before the 10 minute mark, they
will have bonus time to work on the construction of the houses!! Maybe use
this as motivation to help them stay on track and want to finish their plan
somewhat quickly.
20
minutes Body of lesson- Building the houses
(for Expectations:
building)  Students will work as a team! This means nobody should be acting “bossy”, Have a student erase
a team off the board
and everyone should be contributing in one way or another! if their house is
10 minutes  Voices will stay at an inside level, students will have to speak to each other in blown down!
(to test!) order to collaborate but this will not occur with yelling voices

I will be circulating the room helping students if needed, but also ensuring that
students are staying on track, that they are taking turns/sharing materials with
teammates and that expectations are being met!

Houses vs. Blow Drier (the test):

 The students will take 20 minutes to build their houses, whether they finish
or not, they attach the sticky note with their team’s name on it to their
house.
 One by one the students will bring their house over to the U-Shaped table.
 We will see how their house holds up against the Blow drier.
 If the house is blown down/damaged by blow drier, I will have a student
erase the team name from the board (students will be chosen at random-
most likely chose students that aren’t as engaged at the moment or benefit
from attention)!

Lesson conclusion- Point to the group whose house

5 minutes
to clean-up
beat the blow drier

Ask students:
 After seeing how each house was affected by the blow drier, which groups
house was able to stay intact the most?
o Point to the table whose house was not blown down by the blow
drier.

2
 Clean-up! Have students put away materials in their bins at their tables and pick up
materials on the ground around them!

Assessment of student learning (What strategies will you use to assess whether or not students achieved the above outcome/s?)
 The students will demonstrate comfort in using appropriate materials to construct their houses throughout the activity.
 Participation in the activity will be measured through observation as I circulate the room to help, redirect, or answer any
questions the students might have.
 The students will not be assessed solely on how well the house stands up to the blow drier, but also on how well they worked as
a team, and how effectively they used the materials.
 I will be circulating the room to ensure there is no horse play or funny business going on while the students are working on their
projects, they will be given time restrictions and this will be visible on the smartboard so they are aware of how much time
remains.
Teacher reflection (What went well? Why? What could be improved?)

Notes for next lesson