I think that a great way to integrate mathematics into a study involving Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books is to engage students in a cooking activity that would correspond with a read-aloud of Little Town on the Prairie. The Ingalls family is attending a Thanksgiving celebration with their friends and Laura's Ma is responsible for bringing baked beans and a "great pumpkin pie". I would envision this activity working well in a third or fourth grade classroom, as students are beginning to learn the basics of fractions. After reading this chapter to the students (or having them "popcorn read"), the teacher could pass out a recipe worksheet to the students, which would contain a list of ingredients and the necessary spices. However, the amounts are not directly listed. Instead, they are expressed by visual fraction models that are pictured next to their corresponding ingredient. Each standard unit of measure for the particular ingredient is written below the fraction model, so students will need to look at the picture and the unit and be able to write the amounts in the blank space next to the correlating ingredients. This activity would help them begin to see how to visually compare fractions that have the same whole. Here, they could compare the ingredients whose amounts are measured with "one cup" as the whole (2 cups mashed pumpkin, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1.5 cups milk). They could also compare the different spices, whose amounts are measured with "one teaspoon" as the whole (1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt). This would allow them to practice making equivalent fractions because they would need to express the 1/2 tsp of ginger, cloves, and salt as 2/4 tsp in order to compare them to the 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. Once students have completed the worksheet, the teacher could surprise the class with the ingredients to make an actual pumpkin pie like the one in the story. (The recipe can be found either in The Little House Cookbook, or at the website link provided below.) Students could contribute by volunteering to add in the different ingredients. (The teacher could have a pre-made pie to share with the students once they have finished mixing the ingredients, but if there is access to an oven, the class could bake it and have a fresh pumpkin pie!) For a homework assessment, the teacher could assign a similar activity by giving each of the students a different recipe from The Little House Cookbook and ask them to use the given measurements to draw fraction model representations of the different amounts.
http://www.littlehousebooks.com/fun/thanksgivingpie.cfm
Little House Cookbook Measurement Guide:
**The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories has a metric conversion table, which would be a helpful tool to copy and print out for the students so that they can begin to understand the standard measurements that are used for cooking. It includes a linear measurement conversion chart, as well as a Fahrenheit-Celsius reference guide for cooking temperatures.
**To further integrate their previous math knowledge, the teacher could give a "Bonus Question" at the end of the worksheet that asked the students to find the Area and Perimeter of the 12" square of unbaked pie crust.
**Another fun math activity would be to have students see if they can determine how many ounces make up a "Half Pint" (which is Pa's nickname for Laura!)
"Moving West: Mapping the Ingalls Family's Journey"
One of the best parts about using historical fiction books in the classroom is that students can transport themselves back into time through the perspective of an endearing character and try to identify with some of their experiences. Students who have moved several times (or even at all) can relate to Laura and the Ingalls family as they pick up and move to different places in the attempt to better their quality of life. In order to integrate The Little House series into Social Studies curriculum, the teacher could have the students create a map that highlights the various places that the Ingalls family settled. I think that they will enjoy being able to visually understand how to use a map to track the history of the Ingalls' journey, as it will provide them with a reference when they are looking to explain the sequence of events or relay details from the stories they have read. Students will need to utilize their mapmaking skills, which includes using the eight cardinal and intermediate directions (N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW), using an inch-scale to measure distance, and creating a map key/legend to explain some of the history of the territories, physical aspects of the land, and resources and products that could be found there. This map could also serve as a way to explain "the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans" (SS4H6c) and "the impact of the steam locomotive on life in America" (SS4H6), which correspond nicely with fourth grade Georgia Performance curriculum standards. By using the website (link is provided below), students would be able to see a timeline of the Ingalls' journey and a map of the states where they lived. Once students have plotted the different settlements on the map and marked out the route that the Ingalls family traveled, they could do some additional research using other trade books, such as Carol Johnnman's Going West! Journey on a Wagon Trail to Settle a Frontier Town. This would allow them to draw conclusions about the most practical methods of travel and help them to further understand some of the challenges that pioneers faced, such as calculating the distance of the trip or how much food to pack for a journey. In this way, the mapmaking activity could be integrated in a variety of ways across the curriculum. Students who are interested in math might enjoy calculating the long journey and accounting for a certain amount of food and supplies, which might make them more interested in participating in the Social Studies aspect of mapmaking. Overall, I think that students will be interested in customizing their own maps and identifying the similarities and differences that they have with pioneer families. Hopefully this activity will also allow them to see how westward expansion did not only impact the migrating pioneer families, but also how it impacted the Native Americans, whose land was being overtaken by the settlers. This could be a great introduction into reinforcing the importance of treating others with respect, which could lend itself to a writing prompt that has the students put themselves into the perspective of either a Native American child or a pioneer child who is writing about characteristics that they notice in the other culture and how it makes them feel to be different.
http://hoover.archives.gov/LIW/pioneering/index.html
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