Lesson Plan #: AELP-BSS0200

Hands and Sense of Touch - Unit Plan

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Kristin Cox
Email: kristin.cox@worldnet.att.net
School/University/Affiliation: Guild Elementary School, Gallatin, TN

Date: September 5, 2000

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Subject(s):

Unit Duration: Five 30-45 minute sessions

Description: This unit introduces students to the importance of our hands and the sense of touch. Students will learn about the importance of thumbs and the use of hands for measurement.

Unit Goals:
1. The learners will (TLW) appreciate the importance of our hands.
2. TLW gain an understanding of how our hands are used in daily activities.
3. TLW understand that thumbs are integral to our ability to grasp objects.
4. TLW understand that hands are important to our sense of touch.

Unit Objectives:
1. TLW identify various things that we do with our hands.
2. TLW make his/her own “I’m So Handy” book.
3. TLW orally identify the importance of our thumbs in our ability to grasp.
4. TLW perform activities without the use of his/her thumbs.
5. TLW orally distinguish their left hand from their right hand.
6. TLW orally and manually identify whether they are right handed, left handed, or ambidextrous.
7. The students will (TSW) use a non-standard form of measurement (their hands) to measure classroom objects.
8. TSW sequence objects (hand cut-outs) from largest to smallest.
9. TSW sort objects into groups of small, medium, and large.

Above Grade Level:
1. TLW be encouraged to write or draw a creative story about a hand and its experiences.
2. TLW be encouraged to find facts about hands, using a library and/or computer.

Below Grade Level:
1. TLW be partnered with a peer helper.
2. TLW be given patterns of hands to trace and cut.
3. TLW be given extra time to complete their projects

Materials:

Unit Assessment:
1. TSW name at least three things that we do with our hands.
2. TSW complete an “I’m So Handy” book.
3. TSW perform activities without the use of his/her thumb.
4. TSW be able to tell orally whether he/she is right handed or left handed.
5. TSW be able to explain why we need thumbs.

Table of Contents

Lesson 1: What Can We Do With Our Hands?

Lesson 2: Why We Have Thumbs

Lesson 3: Are You Right Handed or Left Handed?

Lesson 4: What Can We Measure With Our Hands?

Lesson 5: Are Your Hands Big or Small?

Learning Stations

Bibliography

Lesson 1: What Can We Do With Our Hands?

Duration: 30-45 minutes

Objectives:
1. TLW identify various things that we do with our hands.
2. TLW make his/her own “I’m So Handy” book.

Materials:

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set:
Read Lois Ehlert’s book, Hands , which describes things that we do with our hands.

Instruction:
Ask students to share some things that we can do with our hands. Record students' responses on chart paper. Ask students to share some things that we can do without our hands. Record students' responses on chart paper. Ask the children to compare the two lists. Which list is longer? What does that tell us about our hands?

Inform students that they are going to make their own hand shaped books in which they will write about and draw pictures of activities that they can do with their hands. Distribute hand shaped pieces of paper, and instruct the students to draw pictures of activities that they do with their hands. Books can be as long or as short as each student wants. Use brads to “bind” students' books. When the books are finished, students can share their books with one another. Encourage students to take their books home to share with their parents.

Closure:
Review the lists made at the beginning of the lesson. Ask students if there are more activities that we can do with our hands or without our hands.

Assessment: Collect each student's “I’m So Handy” book. Monitor student responses to teacher posed questions.

Lesson 2: Why We Have Thumbs

Duration: 30-45 minutes

Objectives:
1. TLW orally identify the importance of our thumbs in our ability to grasp.
2. TLW perform activities without the use of his/her thumbs.

Materials:

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set:
Come into the classroom with your thumbs taped to your hands. Try to perform the morning calendar activities without the use of your thumbs, eliciting help from students as necessary. Untape your thumbs to begin instruction.

Instruction:
Inform students that human beings are among only a few animals that have thumbs. Ask students how important they think our thumbs are. What sorts of things do we do with our thumbs? Tell students that they will be participating in an experiment to determine the importance of our thumbs.

Explain to students that they are going to tape their thumbs to their hands to see what they can or cannot do without the use of their thumbs. Help students tape their thumbs to their hands. Have students perform activities such as coloring, eating, reading, holding a book, dribbling a ball, etc.
Encourage students to try and eat their lunch with their thumbs taped to their hands as well. This should be done in the room as it may get messy! At the end of an allotted time period, allow students to untape their thumbs.

Discuss with students whether or not it was difficult to perform daily activities without the use of their thumbs. Ask the students if they think their thumbs are important or not.

Closure:
Ask the students to share three things that are impossible to do without the use of their thumbs. Ask students to share three things that they could do without the use of their thumbs.

Assessment: Monitor student responses to teacher posed questions. Observe students performing activities without the use of their thumbs.

Lesson 3 - Are You Right Handed or Left Handed?

Duration: 30-45 minutes

Objectives:
1. TLW orally distinguish their left hand from their right hand.
2. TLW orally and manually identify whether they are right handed, left handed, or ambidextrous.

Materials:

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set:
Ask students to scratch their backs. After a few seconds of scratching, tell students to freeze and put the hand that they were using to scratch their back high up in the air. Ask students to share whether the hand they are holding high in the air is their right hand or their left hand.

Instruction:
Inform students that most people are born with a tendency to use one hand more than the other. Explain to students that today they are going to do some experiments to determine whether they are left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous (which means that they use both hands equally). Tell students that for each experiment they will write either an R, an L, or an A depending on which hand they use.

Ask students to record R, L, or A for the hand used to scratch their back.
Have students clasp their hands together. Which thumb is on top? Students record R, L, or A.
Have students cross their arms. Which arm is on top? Students record R, L, or A.
Ask students to notice which hand they are writing with. Students record R, L, or A.

Instruct students to count the number of R's, L's, and A's they recorded. Students are to figure out whether they are left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous by which letter had the greatest number of occurrences. Construct a tally on the board or on chart paper of how many students are left handed, how many students are right handed, and how many students are ambidextrous. Ask the class if more people are left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous in the class. Ask the students if they can come up with more experiments to discover if they are left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous. Have students perform their own experiments.

Closure:
Teach students the following chant to further reinforce their understanding of right and left:
“This is my right hand. I’ll raise it up high. This is my left hand. Watch me touch the sky. Right hand and left hand, listen to them clap. Right hand and left hand, fold them in your lap.”

Assessment: Record students' responses on a tally chart. Observe students doing experiments. Monitor student responses to teacher posed questions.

Lesson 4 - What Can We Measure With Our Hands?

Duration: 30-45 minutes

Objective: TSW use a non-standard form of measurement (their hands) to measure classroom objects.

Materials:

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set:
Inform students that before rulers or yardsticks were developed, people had to use other ways to measure objects. Explain to students that at one time, the length of a person’s arm from their hand to their elbow was used as a form of measurement as well as the following: the length between a person’s spread fingers, the length between a person’s fingers that are not spread, the width of one finger, and the length between a person’s spread hand from pinky to thumb. Tell students that today they are going to be using their hands to measure various classroom objects.

Instruction:
Give each table a chalkboard eraser, a marker, a sheet of notebook paper, and other various classroom objects. Instruct each student to use their hands to measure the objects. The students can use either the width of their finger, the span of their hand from pinky to thumb, the span of their hand excluding the thumb, the span of their hand with fingers together, or the length of their arm from forearm to wrist. Each student will receive a picture chart illustrating the different ways to measure things with their hands. Each student will keep a tally of how long or wide the objects are by making tally marks beside the picture and writing the name of the object. Students may measure as many objects as they like. After measuring the objects, students can compare the lengths that they found.

Closure:
Review the different ways we can use our hands to measure objects.

Assessment: Monitor students while they are measuring the classroom objects. Check to see that students have filled out their tally charts.

Lesson 5 - Are Your Hands Big or Small?

Duration: 30-45 minutes

Objectives:
1. TSW sequence objects (hand cut-outs) from largest to smallest.
2. TSW sort objects into groups of small, medium, and large.

Materials:

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set:
Ask one student to come to the front of the class. Ask the student to hold up his/her hand, and then hold up your hand against the student’s hand. Ask the class what they notice about the difference between the two hands. Inform students that like most body parts, hands come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Tell the students that today they will be tracing their hands to see whose hands are the largest, all the way down to whose hands are the smallest.

Instruction:
Give each student a piece of construction paper, and divide the students into pairs. One student will place his hand flat on the piece of paper, and the other student will trace the hand. After both students have traced their hands, then the students will cut out their traced hands. Instruct students to come to the carpet, and have them place their hand cut-outs in the center. Ask the students to come up individually and try to put the hand cut-outs in order from longest to shortest. The entire class will have input on the final outcome. The cut-outs will also be ordered from widest to skinniest.

Closure:
Review sizes by holding up the largest hand cut-out and the smallest hand cut-out and asking the children to tell the difference between the two.
Ask students to trace their parents' hands and to bring in the cut-outs for class the next day. Students will order their parents’ hands from largest to smallest.

Assessment: Check to make sure that the students can order objects from largest to smallest. Monitor responses to teacher posed questions.

Learning Stations:

These stations can be set up in the classroom for the duration of the unit.

1. Finger Painting - Finger painting will be one learning station. Through finger painting, children are able to use their hands to express themselves
creatively.

2. Tactile Station - A tactile station will be set up. A tactile center incorporates many objects that children can feel. Objects will include sandpaper, sand, fur, felt, satin, oranges, lemons, cotton, wool, rocks, foil, etc. but will not be limited to these objects. Students and parents will be encouraged to bring objects from home as well. A tactile station is important, because it will give students the chance to experience different sensations of touch.

3. Music Station - The music station will have various instruments that children can play with their hands such as tambourines, drums, cymbals, etc. Children can clap various rhythms with their hands as well. There will also be a conductor's baton for children to conduct music.

4. Clay Station - Children will be able to use their hands to model clay into different objects. Again, children will be able to express themselves creatively with their hands.

5. Sewing Station - The sewing station will have dull plastic needles and cards that children can sew. This activity demonstrates one common activity that can be done with our hands.

Bibliography:

Textbooks and other books

Aliki. My Hands . Harper and Collins.
Ancona, Mary Beth. Handtalk Zoo . Four Winds.
Brown, Marc. Hand Rhymes . Dutton Children’s Books.
Charlip, Remy. Handtalk: An ABC of Finger Spelling & Sign Language . Four Winds.
Ehlert, Lois. Hands . Harcourt Brace.
Fain, Kathleen. Handsigns: A Sign Language Alphabet . Chronicle Books.
Izen, Marshall & West, Jim. Why the Willow Weeps: A Story Told With Hands . Doubleday.
Mariotti, Mario. Hanimals . Simon and Schuster.
Mariotti, Mario. Hanimations . Simon and Schuster.
Perkins, Al. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb . Random.
Rankin, Laura. The Handmade Alphabet . Dial.
Yolen, Jane. Hands . Sundance Publishers & Distributors.
 

Films, video tapes, computer programs, and records

- “Sole Mani” (video) order from Direct Cinema at 1-800-525-0000
- recording of Hands by Jane Yolen, purchased from publisher
- recording of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
- recording of “Where is Thumbkin?”
- recording of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
 

Posters, maps, charts:

- x-rays of hands
- chart of American Sign Language
- tally chart of who in the class is left handed and who is right handed
- chart showing different types of fingerprints (example - whorl)
 

Transitions

1.
"On my head my hands I place,
On my shoulders, on my face."
 

2.
"If you want to get to know me,
Here is your chance:
Just jump on your feet
And do the welcome dance.
Then skip around,
Don’t miss a beat;
Stop and shake the hand
Of each friend you meet."

3.
“Hands on shoulders,
Hands on knees,
Hands behind you
If you please.
Touch your elbows,
Then your nose,
Touch your hair,
Now touch your toes.
Raise your hands up high,
Wave hello,
Stretch those arms and
Watch you grow!
Then bring hands down,
Touch the floor,
Now clap your hands...
One, two, three, four!”
 

4.
“Fee, fi, fo, fum (Thump little finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, on desk.)
Hear my fingers, (Thump fingers on desktop)
Hear my thumb. (Thump thumb on desktop)
Fee, fi, fo, fum... (Repeat first action.)
Fingers gone, (Pull fingers into a fist)
So is my thumb!" (Pull thumb into fist)
 

5.
“Pinkety, pinkety,
Thumb to thumb.
Make a wish
But tell no one.
If yours comes true,
Mine will, too.
Pinkety, pinkety,
Thumb to thumb.”
 

6.
“This is my right hand.
I’ll raise it up high.
This is my left hand.
Watch me touch the sky.
Right hand and left hand,
Listen to them clap.
Right hand and left hand,
Fold them in your lap.”