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Phase 1 |
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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. |
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6 Illustrate Stories Many children drew about houses being built and repaired. Other children drew pictures of machines they had seen being used. |
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. |
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Phase 2 |
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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. |
15 Create Representations Children represented their findings with house constructions, paintings, and math organizers. |
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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. |
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Phase 3 |
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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. |
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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. |
