YUMMY! ESKIMO PIE ESTIMATION

To celebrate the last days of winter in sunny Malibu I decided to give them a little cool treat, Eskimo Pies. To start the unit, I read 2 books that take place in Alaska, Danger the Dogyard Cat  and Alaska's Three Bears. We then watched a small video about the life of an Eskimo. As a class we discussed how different Alaska is compared to  our state of California. We talked about the different cultures and animals that we see.  The students  helped me make a Venn diagram comparing the life of an Eskimo living on the tundra and our life living in Malibu. We followed up this activity by making our own Eskimos using paper plates.  They had so much fun creating their Eskimo friend and it was a great activity to practice their cutting skills.  Those paper plates were tough!  We finished up the unit a yummy estimation activity.  I found it in my old AIMS workbooks. It is called Polar Bear Pie. We talked about estimating and what that meant. I shared a handful of crayons and asked them to "THINK" about their estimate, not to guess.  Then I showed them a cookie and asked them how many bites they thought it would take me to eat it.  Again, emphasizing the "THINKING"part.  Then I ate it as we counted the bites.  Boy were they bummed when I got to eat it.  "That's not fair!" was yelled from a few of them. That's when I showed them the Eskimo Pies and explained it was now their turn. They were so excited and ready to begin their estimation activity.  We used our white boards to make tally marks as we ate our ice cream.  It was a bit messy, but they loved it.  After cleaning up all the chocolate hands and mouths, we filled out our worksheets in small groups and graphed our findings on a huge Eskimo Pie in our room!