Campbell County first-grade teacher uses Oscar Tshiebwe in lesson

We all know Kentucky star center Oscar Tshiebwe is a rockstar in the world of college basketball. And local teacher Shannon Mann of Campbell County used the senior standout in her own lesson plan to become a rockstar with her own first-grade students in Northern Kentucky.

With Tshiebwe’s record-shattering numbers and larger-than-life frame come pretty easy math opportunities. You can even throw in some geography with the 6-foot-9 center’s home of the Dominican Republic of the Congo — the plans create themselves. And that’s exactly what Mann did.

“We have learned so much from you this week,” the first-grade teacher said on her YouTube page. ”We’ve learned how to make bar graphs and charts, measuring with feet and inches, so much, and we’ve used you as our inspiration! So we’d really like to thank you so much for helping us learn these past few weeks.”

The video showed her students interacting and learning with the hand-drawn Tshiebwe with a photo of No. 34’s face glued onto the top — a perfect recreation for the talented first-graders.

Among the specific lessons and questions the students worked on throughout the Tshiebwe-focused project:

• What is the difference between my height and Oscar’s?
• What is the difference between my height and Oscar’s?
• Oscar had 24 rebounds in the UGA game and 16 rebounds in the LSU game. How many rebounds did he have all together?
• A biography on Tshiebwe
• We learned how to use standard units of measurement to create a life-size model of Oscar Tshiebwe
• We used standard units of measurements to find our own height and wingspan
• We learned how to compare two-digit numbers and show the difference between Oscar’s height and wingspan, and our own
• We learned how to display data using charts and bar graphs
• We learned how to analyze data shown in charts and bar graphs
• We learned how to add two- and three-digit numbers using base-ten blocks in order to determine how many rebounds Oscar had this season
• We learned about equivalency by showing all of the ways to make 34 — Oscar’s jersey number
• We learned how to use multiple strategies to solve story problems using Oscar’s game stats
• We learned how to locate the Dominican Republic of the Congo on a map of Africa
• We learned about the culture and wildlife of the Congo

And a note from Mrs. Mann on her channel:

“Our first grade class just finished a multi-disciplinary unit using Big O as our inspiration. From measurement activities to language arts and writing, to cultural studies, Oscar Tshiebwe helped us meet countless learning goals over the past two weeks. Thanks Oscar! Lots of love from Mrs. Mann and her Mouseketeers!”

Take a look:

Where do we nominate Mrs. Mann for teacher of the year?