Lesson 4

Meet Mr. Origin

Est. Class Sessions: 1–2

Developing the Lesson

Part 2: Identify the Location of an Object

Define Origin. Show students the model you prepared of Mr. Origin’s Map. See Materials Preparation. Display and direct students to the Mr. Origin’s Map page from the Student Activity Book. Point out the correspondence between the actual model and the display of the map.

Ask:

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  • Does this map remind you of anything we have worked with? (Possible response: It looks like the centimeter rulers we use.)
  • How is it like a ruler? (Possible response: It is marked with centimeters.)
  • How is it different than a ruler? (Possible response: On a ruler, zero is the starting place for measuring and you only measure in one direction. On this line, the zero is in the middle and the numbers get bigger as you go either right or left of the zero, so you can measure things to the right or left of zero.)
  • Where is Mr. Origin on his map? (He is in the middle on the zero.)

Explain that the zero on this map is called the origin of the map. Origin is a mathematical term that means “the place from which we start a measurement.“ Mr. Origin was named because he is always placed with his button, center, just above the starting point, or the zero. He is also always placed with his back facing us so that his right hand points to the right side of the paper. Direct students to use their finger to show where the origin is on their page as you quickly scan the room to make sure students can identify the origin.

Ask students to look at the Mr. Origin’s Data Table page in the Student Activity Book.

Introduce the data table with this short vignette:

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  • Sam created a data table to show the location of each object on Mr. Origin’s Map. He used centimeters to measure the distance of each of the objects from Mr. Origin. Sam found that the triangle was 7 centimeters to the right of Mr. Origin. He recorded this on his data table.

Ask students to use the Mr. Origin’s Map page to confirm Sam’s location of the triangle.

Ask:

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  • Why do you think Sam included both the distance and the direction on his data table? (Possible response: You need to include both because it tells exactly where each object is on the map.)
  • Why doesn’t telling just the direction or just the distance give us enough information? (Possible response: Since the map goes both to the right and left of Mr. Origin, if you only give the distance you won’t know if you need to go right or left. If you just give the direction, you won’t know how far you need to go to find the object.)

Describe Location of Shapes. Have students work with a partner to find the location of each object on the Mr. Origin’s Map page and complete the data table. After several minutes, display the Mr. Origin’s Data Table page from the Student Activity Book. Ask several students to help you fill in the location of each of the shapes on Mr. Origin’s Map. Add a trapezoid to the shape column of the display and tell students that Sam decided to add a red trapezoid to Mr. Origin’s Map. Explain that he used the data table to describe the location for the trapezoid as 8 centimeters to the left of Mr. Origin. After adding this information to the display of the data table ask students to use their Mr. Origin’s Map page to decide where Sam should place the trapezoid on the map. Ask students to either sketch a trapezoid or draw an X where the trapezoid would be on their map.

Adventure Book:
Student Activity Book: 805 807
Answers
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Master: