Lesson Plan One - Blue Whales

Lesson Plan One – Blue Whales

Activity 2: How big is a blue whale?

Curriculum Connections

Science: Grades 4-6

• Appreciate nature and the need to conserve area for future generations to enjoy

• Use a variety of sources to gather information about whales
• Describe a blue whale
• Measure, record and compare the size of blue whales to other whales

• Observe characteristics, similarities and differences
• Draw inferences and make predictions based on data

Language Arts: Grade 4-6

• Demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving
• Clarify problems by asking questions
• Sort and classify information

Objectives: Students will compare the lengths of several species of whales and explore proportional relationships.

Materials:

• One 30 m length of rope or string
• A measuring tape
• 8 different colour markers or 8 paper tags that can be attached to the rope
• A large roll of brown paper
• Pencils
• Whale ID fact sheets provided with kit or use the internet site: www.aquaticspeciesatrisk.gc.ca

Let's get started!

You will need a lot of space for this activity, preferably an outdoor space, the school gymnasium, or even a long hallway.

1. Use the measuring tape, measure out the lengths of each whale on the rope as stated on the whale ID fact sheets included in the kit.
2. Using different colored markers or tags mark those lengths along the rope.
3. Make a paper key to go with the rope that lists each of the whales, the colour or tag associated with them, and the length of the whale.
4. Find other objects in the school to measure and compare to the size of the whales. Add them to the rope and to the paper key.
5. Share the project with other classes. Have two students unroll the whale rope, stopping at each marker. Have other students' guess what whale is as long as the unrolled rope at each marker.

Talk about it! Adapt these questions to further your discussion.

1. What is good about being big?
2. What is good about being small?
3. What are the challenges of being big?
4. What are the challenges of being small?
5. How many blue whales would fit in your school gym?
6. How many cars make up the length of a blue whale?
7. Why can some whales grow so large and why don't land animals do the same?