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Phase 1
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1 Opening Event
In a large group meeting, the teacher recalled a field trip
the children took in October to see the Fire Safety Awareness
exhibit.
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2 Brainstorm Ideas
Children brainstormed ideas about fire and fire safety.
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3 Categorize Ideas
Teachers helped place ideas into categories directly on
the chart paper.
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4 Label Categories
With teacher help, students made their Student
Topic Web I.
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5 Share Personal
Memories
Students shared personal experiences with fire at large
group meetings.
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6 Illustrate Stories
Students used a variety of medium to illustrate their memory
stories. They used finger paints, watercolors, chalk, and
markers. Parents helped with dictation of stories. Teachers
typed their stories on the computer.
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7 Share Stories
Students shared their stories and pictures at large group
meetings. They noted similarities and differences in experiences.Teachers
displayed the stories and pictures on the wall.
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8 Collect Data
Students developed surveys to find out what classmates already
knew about fire and fire safety.
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9 Represent Findings
Children represented their findings using bar graphs. Students
used clay and play dough to represent their memories of
fire equipment.
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10 Articulate Questions
Teachers and students wondered about fire and fire safety.
Where were smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in their
homes?What type of equipment did fire fighters use? What
can catch fire?
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Phase 2
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11 Group Planning
Students began exploring fire safety in three groups to
answer their main questions. They decided they needed to
ask some fire fighters about their equipment. They also
needed to go to a fire station.
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12 Make Predictions
Before each guest speaker visited, the children articulated
questions and formed predictions about their responses.
Before each field study, students made predictions about
what they would see and find on their field study.
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13 Engaging in Field
Study*
Students collected data to answer their questions about
fire safety. The teachers invited fire fighters, and other
experts into the class. One group of students toured the
building to locate fire extinguishers and smoke detectors.
Teachers also planned a trip to the local fire department.
*This may take weeks!
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14 Debrief
Students shared their findings at large group meetings.
They compared their findings to their predictions.
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15 Create Representations
Students represented their findings with constructions,
clay models, paintings, and graphic organizers.
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16 Share
At large group meetings, students shared their progress
on their surveys, representations and experiments. Classmates
offered suggestions for refinement.
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17 Plans for Visiting
Expert
Students formulated questions for the expert and the teacher
documented what students thought the experts would say to
answer their questions.
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18 Expert Visitor
Three fire fighters visited the school and shared new knowledge
about fires and fire safety. Children held and examined
fire equipment closely.
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19 Debrief
Students compared experts' answers to their predictions.
They made observational drawings of fire extinguishers and
other tools that the fire experts brought to share with
them.
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20 Continuing Investigation
Students experimented. For example, they observed what happened
to a lit candle under a glass globe when the teacher put
a lid on the globe.
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Phase 3
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21 Representations
Students created many 3-dimensional representations of fire
equipment including smoke detectors, fire extinguishers,
and fire trucks.
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22 Articulating
What Students Have Learned
The whole group discussed what they had learned about fire
and fire safety. The teacher asked individual children to
respond to what they had learned.
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23 Brainstorm Second
Web
Students brainstormed what they now know about fire.
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24 Label and Categorize
Ideas
With the teachers, the students categorized what they knew
about fire and developed the Student
Fire Topic Web II.
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25 Plan for Sharing
Students brainstormed ideas for the culminating activity.
They wanted to share the fire truck, books that they created
about fire, and two iMovies that depicted what they knew
about fire fighters.
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26 Project Highlights
Students made a representation of a house with fire extinguishers
and smoke detectors. A small group of students role-played
a fire call and the teacher videotaped and edited their
fire call into an iMovie. Another group of students wrote
and acted a play that involved fire fighters. The teacher
filmed the play and made that into an iMovie.
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27 Imaginative Activity
Students used the dramatic playroom as a fire station. Everyone
had fun going on fire calls. Teachers supported literacy
by writing down what children dictated to her about the
fire call. Other students wrote creative stories about fire.
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28 Display
Students contributed their representation of the fire truck
and a house for display. Teachers placed their stories,
graphs, and pictures on the walls. Teachers also displayed
the reports of the "fire calls."
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29 Culmination
Parents gathered in the room to hear the Chicago Fire
Song, and safety tips
from students. Then they toured the room to read the
displays. The open house concluded with a special showing
of the two iMovies.
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30 Evaluation
The teacher videotaped students sharing their new knowledge
about fire safety. Students
and parents reflected
on the project by responding to a questionnaire. Teachers
examined students'
project portfolios to assess growth and learning.
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