Lesson 11

Drawings to Represent Story Problems

Warm-up: Which One Doesn’t Belong: Butterflies (10 minutes)

Narrative

This warm-up prompts students to carefully analyze and compare features of four different drawings. The activity also enables the teacher to hear the words students know and how they talk about characteristics of drawings.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display image.
  • “Pick one that doesn’t belong. Be ready to share why it doesn’t belong.”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time

Activity

  • “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
  • 2-3 minutes: partner discussion
  • Share and record responses.

Student Facing

Which one doesn’t belong?

ACircles, 7.

B5 Butterfly drawings, a line, 3 butterfly drawings.
CCounters. Red, 5. Yellow, 2.
DFive frame, full. Below, 1 counter.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • “In the next activity, we will draw pictures to show what is happening in a story problem.”

Activity 1: Draw a Picture (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to draw a picture to represent and solve a story problem (MP2). Many students may draw pictures with details—for example, a drawing of students playing soccer. Students should have access to connecting cubes and two-color counters to help them represent the story (MP5).

Action and Expression: Internalize Executive Functions. Invite students to verbalize what they are going to draw before they begin. Students can speak quietly to themselves, or share with a partner.
Supports accessibility for: Organization, Conceptual Processing, Language

Required Materials

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Give students access to two-color counters and connecting cubes.
  • Read and display the task statement.
  • “Tell your partner what happened in the story.”
  • 30 seconds: quiet think time
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Monitor for students who accurately retell the story. Choose at least one student to share with the class.
  • Reread the task statement.
  • “Draw a picture to show what is happening in the story problem.”

Activity

  • 3 minutes: independent work time
  • Monitor for students who draw pictures with details to represent the story. Monitor for students who use symbols such as circles.

Student Facing

Students playing soccer.

There were 7 kids playing soccer in the park.

3 of the kids left to go play on the swings.

How many kids are playing soccer in the park now?

Handwriting lines.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • “Let’s take a look at what other students drew.”

Activity 2: Picture Gallery Walk (15 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to compare drawings to represent story problems. Students participate in a gallery walk to see the different drawings that were created. Consider creating a cue or signal to indicate when students should move from one drawing to the next. In the activity synthesis, students compare and make connections between using detailed pictures and symbols such as circles to represent the story. Students also share different ways to represent subtraction in a drawing (MP2).

MLR8 Discussion Supports. During the gallery walk, invite students to pair verbal explanations with pointing to the corresponding parts of the drawings when answering the question, “How does your drawing show what happens in the story?”
Advances: Speaking, Representing

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • “We are going to do a gallery walk and see the pictures that everyone drew to show the story.” 
  • “As you walk around, notice how other students organized their drawings. How did each person show the kids who were playing soccer and the kids who left to go play on the swings?”
  • “As you walk around, you can ask ‘How does your drawing show what happens in the story?’”

Activity

  • Invite half the class to stand next to their drawing while the other half of the class walks around and looks at the drawings.
  • 5 minutes: gallery walk
  • Monitor for students who clearly show which students were playing soccer initially and which students left to play on the swings.
  • Switch groups.
  • 5 minutes: gallery walk

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • Invite a student who drew a drawing with details to share. 
  • Invite a student who drew symbols such as circles to represent the kids. If no student did this, draw 7 circles and cross out 3 of them.
  • “What is the same about how _____ and _____ showed the story?”
  • “What do the circles in this picture show from the story?” (They show the kids who were playing soccer and the kids who left.)
  • “What other ways to show the kids who were playing soccer and the kids who left to go play on the swings did you see during the gallery walk?” (Sample responses: They crossed some out. They circled the kids who went away. They used a different color to show the kids who left to play on the swings.)
  • As students share, display student work that shows the students who left in different ways. 
  • “There were 7 kids playing soccer and then 3 of the students left to go play on the swings. We can write that as ‘7 take away 3’ or ‘\(7 - 3\)’.”

Activity 3: Centers: Choice Time (15 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to choose from activities that offer practice with addition and subtraction, as well as describing and building shapes. Students choose from any stage of previously introduced centers.

  • Bingo
  • Math Fingers
  • Subtraction Towers
  • 5-frames
  • Math Stories
  • Counting Collections

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Required Preparation

  • Gather materials from: 
    • Bingo, Stages 1-3
    • Math Fingers, Stages 1-3
    • Math Stories, Stages 1 and 2
    • Subtraction Towers, Stage 1
    • 5-frames, Stages 1 and 2
    • Counting Collections, Stage 1

Launch

  • “Today we are going to choose from centers we have already learned.”
  • Display the center choices in the student book.
  • “Think about what you would like to do.”

Activity

  • Invite students to work at the center of their choice.
  • 10 minutes: center work time

Student Facing

Choose a center.

Bingo

Center. Bingo.

Math Fingers

Center. Math Fingers.

Subtraction Towers

Center activity, Subtraction Towers.

5-frames

Center. 5 frame.

Math Stories

Center. Math Stories.

Counting Collections

Center. Counting Collections.

Activity Synthesis

  • “How did your group decide who went first?”

Lesson Synthesis

Lesson Synthesis

“Today we drew pictures to show what happened in a story problem. We also looked at many different drawings and saw different ways to draw and organize our drawings.”

“What can you add to or change in your drawing to make it better?”

If time, have students make additions or changes to their drawings.

Cool-down: Represent and Solve a Story Problem (5 minutes)

Cool-Down

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