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Make This Week's
Lessons Pop(corn)!

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Add a little pop to your week -- popcorn, that is. The lesson plans below will engage students as they create popcorn timelines, maps, and graphs; do popcorn science and math; explore popcorn history and nutrition; and munch leftover popcorn snacks too!

How does popcorn pop?
Which states grow the most corn?
Is popcorn more nutritious than potato chips and other snacks?
Was there popcorn in Plimoth when the Indians and Pilgrims shared their first thanksgiving meal?

Those are just a few of the questions this week's lesson plans will answer.

And here's one more question:
Can popcorn be used to teach place value, estimation, volume, percent, and fractions?

You bet -- just check out this week's Popcorn Math lesson plan.
Lessons Popping
Up Everywhere!

* Measure popcorn kernels before popping; measure them after popping. What is the difference in volume?

* Set up 5-10 coffee cans. Assign a different point value to each can. Students toss popcorn into the cans and add up their scores.

* Challenge students to figure out the smartest purchase: an 8-ounce bag of popcorn at $1.99, a 16-ounce bag at $2.99, or a 2-pound bag at $4.99.

* Pop three different brands (X, Y, and Z) of popcorn. Have students "taste test" each brand and vote for their favorite. Create graphs of the results. Then reveal the brand of the winning popcorn.

* Add popcorn-related words to your class word wall. Write each word on popcorn-shaped paper.

* Read aloud Stella and Roy. Stella and Roy race for the popcorn stand in this takeoff on the story of the tortoise and the hare.

* Cover a 6-square-foot area of the floor with kraft paper. Place a popcorn popper in the center and let the popcorn pop -- uncovered! Measure how far away from the popper the popcorn lands.

Click for more popcorn lessons.

FIVE LESSONS FOR TEACHING ABOUT POPCORN

Education World provides five lessons about popcorn. Click each of the five lesson headlines below for a complete teaching resource. (Appropriate grade levels for each lesson appear in parentheses.)

Popcorn Geography
Use corn kernels to create a "Top Corn-Producing States" map. (Grades 3-12)

Popcorn History
Research/create a timeline of the history of popcorn. (Grades 3-12)

Popcorn Math
Use popcorn to teach a number of K-8 math concepts. (Grades K-8)

Popcorn Nutrition
Read a snack nutrition chart and answer questions. (Grades 3-8)

Popcorn Science
Five simple experiments demonstrate what makes popcorn pop. (Grades K-12)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Have you had enough popcorn yet? If you just can't get enough, click for 20 more popcorn lessons.

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