I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Habitats

Essential Question:

How does a whale’s size factor into his environment?

Bridge:

A Close-up Look

Content:

Whales

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To create an experience to connect students to whales through physical concept of size, auditory sounds, and guided imagery. Only in the fourth activity are the children told specifically that they are learning about whales.

Activity:
1. Students relax while lying on floor on their backs, breathing up as whales do from blow holes. The teacher has them imagine how it would feel to float like this while they listen to a cassette tape of whale voices. The teacher does not tell them what the sounds are.
2. Students compare their body size to a 15 foot tape on the floor (representing a humpback whale fin).
3. Students compare themselves standing, lying down, stretching to a 100 foot length on the playground. Students guess what things, living and non-living, might be this size. A small car is parked at the end of the 100 feet to represent the tongue of a blue whale.
4. Using information gathered from available resources, the teacher tells whales stories from a whale's point of view, creating a visual, emotional experience for the children. There are numerous excellent children's literature selections available.

Assessment: Participation, involvement, curiosity, active comparing and active listening, and contribution to the group.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To discuss reactions to sounds and feelings and to participate in discussion of stories.

Activity:
1. Teacher leads discussion of whale sounds, listing possible sources for the sounds.
2. Students discuss the size comparisons and react to the experience with the humpback fin and the 100 foot blue whale.
3. Teacher leads discussion of stories, and students who have visited marine aquariums are invited to share their experiences with live whales.

Assessment: Level of participation and willingness to share ideas.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To see whale movement, size, and environment.

Activity: Students imagine they are whales as they watch the National Geographic video, "Portrait of a Whale." This video has little talking with great visuals in close-up and slow motion. The teacher leads a discussion focusing on the close-up photography and feelings of size and power. The children are encouraged to wonder how the photographer got so close to the whales, how s/he felt during the filming, and whether or not the photographer was in danger. The children each create a whale picture.

Assessment: Attentiveness to film; quality of illustration.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To introduce new vocabulary and specific information about whales.

Activity: Using photographs and drawings, teacher presents information about whale varieties. Students compare and contrast the following kinds of whales: humpback, blue, right, gray, sperm and orca. Students view National Geographic films "Magnificent Monsters of the Deep" and "Great Whales."

Assessment: Teacher verbal checking for understanding during instruction.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To use information learned about whales to create a whale folder.

Activity:
1. Teacher-prepared worksheets. 2. Information lists created from whale lesson classifying each type as to height, weight, migration, distinguishing appearance and behavior, population status, and history with man.
3. Migration maps.

Assessment: Neatness, completeness, organization, ability to follow directions.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To use whale information in creative writings, art, illustration, and construction.

Activity:
1. Illustrate whales to accompany information in folder.
2. Students may choose one written activity: a personal poem; an acrostic poem; a letter to a whale; a letter to their state senator in favor of whale protection.
3. Participate in a class construction of a 25 foot baby blue whale on the hallway bulletin board.
4. Create whale art for display: prints, crayon resist, paper weaving of ocean with sculpted whales; kaliedoscopes.

Assessment: Completion, level of interest, expression of ideas and feelings, application of knowledge.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To evaluate the activities completed in Quadrant Three Right Mode with a focus on praising the inclusion of significant details, not to discourage children about creativity in drawing.

Activity: Critique whale drawings, with an eye for detail. Share writings with a partner, evaluating information and expression of feelings. Label baby blue whale parts and dimensions. Critique art projects for process and representation of whales.

Assessment: Level of participation; attentiveness and sensitivity to partner; application of knowledge.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To share what has been learned with other students, parents, and the community at large.

Activity:
1. Art and writings are displayed in the hallway.
2. Students present a parent program, reading poems and letters and introducing parents to the blue whale sculpture.
3. Whale art is displayed at the Joan Robey gallery in Denver as part of a show to raise money for the Children's Museum.

Assessment: Student participation and enthusiasm.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: