Phase 1

1 Opening Event

In whole group time, the children shared a number of events that they had seen at a construction site near the school.

2 Brainstorm Ideas

Children brainstormed ideas about construction from their own experiences.

3 Categorize Ideas

The children discussed how to categorize their ideas and experiences.

4 Label Categories

Children debated best name of categories. Children developed Construction Topic Web I.

5 Share Personal Stories

The Head Teacher shared stories and pictures of her husband repairing the barn on her farm. She asked each of the children to think of a personal story about construction.

6 Illustrate Stories

Many children drew about houses being built and repaired. Other children drew pictures of machines they had seen being used.

7 Share Stories

The teacher displayed their experience pictures and stories. She grouped them into machines and houses.

8 Collect Data

Children developed surveys and asked questions such as "Are cranes the same as bulldozers?"

9 Represent Findings

The children represented their findings using a pie chart.

10 Articulate Questions

The teacher and the children voiced their "wonderings" about the topic. Children dictated questions that they would like to answer about construction.

Phase 2

11 Group Planning

The children decided they needed to visit the construction site near the school to answer their question, "What is construction?"

12 Make Predictions

Before they went on their site visit, the children dictated predictions about what they would see there.

13 Engage in Field Work*

Children collected data to answer questions by drawing, asking experts, videotaping their trip, collecting artifacts, counting, and taking pictures.

14 Debrief

Children shared experiences and compared their findings with their predictions.

(See Chart)

15 Create Representations

Children represented their findings with house constructions, paintings, and math organizers.

16 Share

During whole group meeting time, the students shared their progress on their representations with classmates who offered suggestions for refinement.

17 Plans for Visiting Expert

Children formulated questions about tools and predicted what the expert might say to answer their question.

18 Expert Visitor

Children interviewed a parent who brought his tools and talked to the class bout the names and uses of tools.

19 Debrief

Children compared experts' answers to their predictions.

20 Continue Investigation

Children did experiments related to construction.

                            Phase 3

21 Representations

Children wrote home-adventure and crane stories.

22 Articulate What Children Have Learned

Group Discussion: What did they learned about construction?

23 Brainstorm Second Topic Web

Children listed ideas of "what they now know" about the construction. Create Construction Topic Web II.

24 Label and Categorize Ideas

Children form categories of similar findings, understandings, and ideas. Children completed their Construction Topic Web II.

25 Plan for Sharing

The teachers and students planned the culminating event and made invitations for the their parents.

26 Project Highlights

Each child prepared to share the story of the learning achieved by the class by using posters, reports, plays, museum format, and songs.

27 Imaginative Activity

Children wrote poems to share their new understanding of construction.

28 Display

Children contributed to the class display. They displayed work from all phases to show growth in understanding.

29 Culmination

Parents visited their displays and heard the children share what they had learned about construction.

30 Evaluation

Children, parents and teachers reflected on the project.