Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!

Using chocolate as a theme, students will become involved in reading, writing, math, word study/spelling and other developmentally appropriate (integrated) activities. The unit includes centers for the classroom along with whole group activities.

A lesson plan for grades K–1 English Language Arts and Mathematics

By Luwonna Oakes

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Related topics

• Learn more about cooperative learning, data collection, estimation, graphing, hands-on, mass, mathematics, measurement, number sense, read-alouds, and sorting.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn about the origins of chocolate and processing chocolate.
• enjoy chocolate-related stories used to improve reading skills.
• measure using chocolate objects.
• learn math facts using chocolate as manipulatives.
• explore word formation and patterns
• use chocolate KISS journals to practice writing skills.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

8 hours

Materials/resources

• Different types of candy used in the centers.
• Playing boards for TIC-TAC-TOE, NIM
• Recording sheets (if desired at centers)
• Making words (c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e) in baggies for cooperative groups.
• Balance Scales
• Books:
• Munching Mark by Elizabeth Cannard
• Chocolate Chippo Hippo by Vincent Andriani
• Chocolate Touch by Patrick Catling (compare with King Midas and His Gold)
• Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith
• Chocolate Dreams by Arnold Adoff and Turi MacCombie(poetry)
• Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory by Margaret & H.A. Rey
• Let’s Visit a Chocolate Factory by Catherine O’Neill
• The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
• Hot Fudge by James Howe
• The Chocolate Cake by June Melser
• The Big Block of Chocolate by Janet Redhead
• Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery by David A Adler
• The Chocolate Rabbit by Maria Claret
• Max’s Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells
• The m&m’s Counting Book by Barbara McGrath
• Videos:
• The Great American Chocolate Story (from Hershey)
• Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Technology resources

• TV/VCR or DVD player
• Computer with internet access

Pre-activities

• Make journals in the shape of Hershey kisses with 5-10 sheets of lined paper in them. Sentence strip tags can come out of the top to write students’ names on them.
• Parent letter informing them of the special unit and asking for volunteers to contribute needed items.
• students collect chocolate wrappers
• divide class into cooperative learning groups (each team selects a chocolate name for its team).
• KWL with the whole group (Chart what students KNOW about chocolate already, WHAT they want to know about it, and at the end of the unit, record what they LEARNED.
• Graph “Who likes chocolate?” Yummy! Yes! and Yucky! No!
• Write or e-mail a few major chocolate companies asking for information and “freebies.” Hershey’s has sent cocoa beans in the past. (This needs to be done at least a month prior to teaching the unit.)
• Students search magazines for chocolate pictures to cover a large sheet of construction paper. They write their name on the paper and glue pictures on. Laminate, fold in the middle, and students can use these as work folders during the week.

Activities

Centers

• Math - Balancing/Measurement: Scales are set up with 5 different chocolate items to be balanced with mini-chocolate bars. On the recording sheet, students should estimate how many mini-bars it will take to balance the five items.
• Games -
  • NIM - Use a type of wrapped chocolate candy to play games of NIM. Placing 1 or 2 pieces of candy down at a time, 2 players compete to see who can be the last to place a piece on the playing board. (Play 5 games at a time.)
  • Tic-Tac-Toe - Using strategies to win, buddy students can use 2 types of candy to play tic-tac-toe. Best out of 5 games is the choco-taco winnner!
• Addition/Subtraction facts to 10 - Use chocolate graham bears as manipulatives to solve math facts. Use calculator to check answers.
• Graphing - Have different types of chocolate for tasting and a prepared recording sheet with stamp sized pictures of the chocolate to cut out and place in order of favorite to least favorite.
• Open/Closed Shapes - Using M&M’s students create open and closed shapes on work mats. Students record the shape with crayons on paper.
• Estimation - Estimate and record predictions for the number of M&Ms in a jar. At the end of the unit, the whole class can count the M&Ms.
• Reading - Have a reading tub with books that deal with chocolate for free reading.
• Listening - Tape a book that is from the book resource list to place in the living center.
• Art - Design a candy bar wrapper of their own.
• Finger Painting - with cocoa mixed with water (I tell them that they can eat ALL they want at this center!)
• Snacks (Chocolate Pizza) - Students spread chocolate pudding on chocolate cookies and place chocolate chips on top!

Cooperative Group Activities

• Sorting Wrappers - Using the wrappers brought in by the students, the teams devise their own sorting rules, sort and see if another team can guess the rules by observing how the wrappers were sorted.
• Oreo Stacking - Teams estimate how many Oreos they think they can stack without them falling. They get a designated amount of tries to see how many Oreos can be stacked without falling. They record their best try.
• Making Words - Using the letters from c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e, teams make lists of words they can create.
• Cocoa Bean Observations - Using beans sent from Hershey, the teams can explore the cocoa bean, dissect it and record information using sight, smell and touch. (They may not eat or taste the beans.) The teams share observations.

Whole Class Activities

• Class discussion and use of videos during the unit.
• Use book titles listed in the resource area above for reading books during reading. I have collected sets of 5-7 copies of the titles at appropriate levels for first grade.
• Read Aloud - Read a part of The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Catling each day. Using a large Venn Diagram, compare it with King Midas.
• Using directions from AIMS you can make chocolate ice cream and discuss changes in matter.
• Math - I did many M&M activities during math and students recorded answers in an M&M shaped recording booklet. Each student received a snack size pack of M&M’s. Before opening they had to predict how many M&M’s were in their little pack. Then they opened them to check. Other activities followed. Activities included:
  • Sorting by colors - Most/Least/Same as comparisons
  • Graphing - Students used their M&M’s to line up and produce a graph. Then they recorded the results using matching crayons on a graph in their recording booklet.
  • Produce a complex pattern (not AB) with M&M’s and record.
  • Addition/Subtraction facts using M&M’s
• KISS Journals - Using journals that were cut in the shape of a kiss and covered with brown construction paper in the same shape, students would write “sweet” entries about whoevers journal was placed on their desk in the mornings. At the end of the week, each student got their KISS Journal back and could read all the “sweet” things written about them in the journal. (A third of a sentence strip was stapled at an angle to the top with the student name on them.)
• KWL - Use before and after unit to record what students gained from the unit.

Assessment

State/local system assessment format

Comments

Please share any information or additions that could be added to the unit. Thanks!