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Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 3-5, 6-8

Brief Description

Students use Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies to create a Venn diagram and write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the two foods.

Objectives

Students compare and contrast Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies. Students write a complete paragraph.

Keywords

compare, contrast, paragraph, Venn diagram

Materials Needed

• writing paper or student journals
• pencils
• sheets of newsprint or other large paper
• Ritz crackers
• Oreo cookies

Lesson Plan

1. Introduce the lesson by asking students to compare and contrast a cat and a dog in their writing journals or on paper.
2. Draw a large Venn diagram on the board. Explain to students that you are going to compare and contrast a cat and a dog in a special chart called a Venn diagram.
3. Explain the concept of a Venn diagram. Label one section Cat, one section Dog, and the middle section Both.
4. Have students share their written comparisons of cats and dogs. Use this information to complete the Venn diagram on the board.
5. Explain to students that they are going to create their own Venn diagrams, but not about cats and dogs.
6. Pass out a large sheet of newsprint or other paper to each student. Have students draw a Venn diagram on the paper and label one section Ritz, one section Oreo, and the middle section Both.
7. Pass out one Ritz cracker and one Oreo cookie to each student. Tell students they must not eat the foods yet!
8. Have students spend 10 to 15 minutes filling in their Venn diagrams with descriptions of their crackers and cookies using all senses except taste. At the end of the allotted time, have students eat the cookies and crackers and then add their taste descriptions to the diagram.
9. Draw a new Venn diagram on the board. Ask students to share some of their written comparisons of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies. Fill in students' responses.
10. Have students use their Venn diagrams to write paragraphs comparing and contrasting Ritz crackers and Oreos. Explain that each paragraph must begin with a topic sentence.
11. Draw a huge umbrella on the board. Explain that a topic sentence is like an umbrella in that it covers the entire paragraph.
12. In small groups, have students come up with several possible topic sentences for a paragraph comparing and contrasting Ritz crackers and Oreos. Have the class vote on the topic sentence they prefer, then write that sentence in the umbrella. Have the whole class use this sentence as their topic sentence.
13. Explain that every sentence in their paragraph has to go along with the topic sentence. For example, write "My cats eat tuna." under the umbrella. Should this sentence be under the umbrella? No. This will help students get the idea of the purpose of a topic sentence.
14. Have students individually write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies.

    Assessment

    Use the paragraph students write to assign a grade based on their comprehension of the use of the Venn diagram and ability to use it as a tool to write a logical paragraph.

    Lesson Plan Source

    Submitted By

    Submitted by Joe Kirstein ([email protected]), Leicester Elementary School, Leicester, North Carolina

    
    As our highlighted lesson, the submitter was awarded a $50 honorarium. See our guidelines to submit yours!