Lesson plan Kindergarten Engineering & Design
A Sun Shade for the Honeycomb Park Bird Bath
A 40-minute kindergarten design lesson where students build two paper sun shades for pie-tin bird baths, compare how much water is left, and dictate an opinion.
Objectives
- Students will build two different paper shades for the same bird bath.
- Students will compare the two water lines and say which shade kept more water.
- Students will draw and dictate one opinion about which shade the park should build.
Vocabulary
Key words: shade, compare, design, dry
Teacher overview
The bird bath in the fictional Honeycomb Park keeps going dry, and the park gardener wants a shade built over it. Two paper shades are set over two matching pie tins on a sunny sill, and the water lines drawn in crayon at the start of the day give the class something to read at the end of it.
The setup step that matters most is filling the two tins from the same cup while the class watches. A result read from two tins that started at different levels will be disputed for the rest of the day, and it is hard to settle after the fact. Pour both, hold them side by side, and let two students confirm the levels match before the shades go on.
The lesson ends with opinion work rather than a second build, because students have a real result in front of them to argue from. The kindergarten opinion-writing standard asks students to state a preference. Asking for one reason as well reaches toward the grade 1 standard.
Procedure
Set up the problem (5 min): Show the two tins and say that birds come to drink at the park, yet the water keeps disappearing on hot days. Ask where the water goes. Accept every answer, then confirm the one the class needs: the sun warms the water and it rises into the air, so less is left for the birds.
Fill and mark (8 min): Fill both tins from the same cup while students count the pours out loud. Two volunteers hold the tins side by side and say whether the levels match. Draw a crayon line at the water level on the inside of each tin, and set both tins on the sunny sill. If you use a lamp instead, an adult sets it up with the bulb and cord well away from the water and the paper.
Build two shades (10 min): Split the class into two halves. One half builds Shade A, a flat card taped across two folded card legs. The other half builds Shade B, a card folded down the middle into a tent and taped over two legs. Both shades must stand on their own and must not touch the water. Set Shade A over the first tin and Shade B over the second.
Predict and wait (5 min): Ask each student to hold up one finger for Shade A or two fingers for Shade B to show which they think will keep more water. Count the hands and record both numbers on the board. This poll is the formative check: if fewer than half the class can say a reason for their choice, model one reason aloud before the class leaves the sill.
Read the result (5 min): Late in the day, gather at the sill. Look at the crayon lines. Ask two students to say which tin still has water close to its crayon line, and which shade did the better job for the birds. If the two lines look the same, say so plainly and record that the two shades held the water about equally, which is an honest result and still gives the class something to form an opinion about.
Draw and dictate the opinion (7 min): Each student draws the shade the park should build and dictates or writes one reason beginning with the word because. Collect the pages as an opinion writing sample.
Student Handout
Read each line aloud. Students draw and dictate.
- Draw the bird bath at the park. Draw a bird beside it.
- Draw the shade you think the park should build. Show its shape.
- Tell your reason. Start with the word because. A grown-up will write it down.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Give these students a page with the two shade shapes already outlined so they color and choose rather than draw from a blank page. Offer a spoken sentence frame for the dictation, "I pick this one because it keeps the water ___," and accept a single word in the blank.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to design a third shade that would work when the sun moves across the sky, and to explain why a shade that covers only one side leaves part of the water uncovered later in the day. Have them mark a second crayon line the next morning and report whether the pattern held.
ELL supports
Pre-teach shade, sun, dry, and more with gestures the whole class uses, such as holding one hand flat above the other for shade. Let students point at the tin they choose during the poll rather than answering aloud, and accept a dictated reason in the home language with one English word added during scribing.
Extensions
Set the same two shades over the tins on a cloudy day and compare what happens when the sun is hidden, which tells students that the sun, and not the shade alone, is driving the change. If your school has a garden bed, ask students where a shade would help a real plant and let them place a card shade there for a week.