Phase 1

1 Opening Event

In whole group time, the children talked about some problems that were occurring on the playground.  When the discussion finished, the teacher thanked them for communicating.

2 Brainstorm Ideas

Children brainstormed ideas about communication from their own experiences.

3 Categorize Ideas

The children discussed how to categorize their ideas and experiences.

4 Label Categories

Children debated names for categories. Children developed Communication Topic Web I.

5 Share Personal Stories

The teachers shared stories about laryngitis and using a cell phone to call for help. They asked each of the children to think of a personal story about communication.

6 Illustrate Stories

Many children drew about talking to members of their family.  Other children drew pictures of telephones and walkie-talkies they had used.

7 Share Stories

The teacher displayed their experience pictures and stories. The children grouped the stories into talking, computers, telephones, books, and color.

8 Collect Data

Children developed surveys and asked questions such as "Have you ever e-mailed?"; "Do you have a walkie-talkie?"

9 Represent Findings

The children represented their findings using a bar graph.

10 Articulate  Questions

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

Phase 2

11 Group Planning

The children decided they needed to walk around the school to answer their question, "What is communication and what are the ways to do it?"

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, collecting artifacts, and counting.

14 Debrief

Children shared experiences and compared their findings with their predictions.

15 Create Representations

Children represented their findings with clay, boxes and junk, 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 sound and predicted what the expert might say and show to answer their questions.

18 Expert Visitor

Children interviewed a parent who brought her singing bowls, slinky and other sound experiments. She talked to the class about sound.

19 Debrief

Children compared experts' answers to their predictions.

20 Continue Investigation

Children did experiments related to communication.

                            Phase 3

21 Representations

Children wrote "Chicken Licken" and "What Am I?" stories.

22 Articulate What Children Have Learned

Group Discussion: What did they learn about communication?

23 Brainstorm Second Topic Web

Children listed ideas of "what they now know" about communication.  They began to create Communication Topic Web II.

24 Label and Categorize Ideas

Children formed categories of similar findings, understandings, and ideas. Children completed their Communication 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, murals, plays, museum format, and songs.

27 Imaginative Activity

Children wrote metaphors and personification poems to share their new understandings of communication.

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 communication.

30 Evaluation

Children, parents and teachers reflected on the project.