I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Change

Essential Question:

Why is change inevitable?

Bridge:

Metaphors for Change

Content:

"An Egg is an Egg" by Nicki Weiss

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To experience the action of exchange (the root of the meaning of change itself.).

Activity: Children play the Change Game. One child could also do this alone with another person telling her/him what to do.
Ask the children to do the following three things:
1. Curl up small, then stand up tall. (Be sure to clap when they do it.)
2. Sit right here, then go sit over there. (Being shown where here and there is.)
3. Put on this cap, now put it in your lap, and put on this second cap.
(You will need enough caps for each child to be able to take the first one off and put the second one on. It would be great if they could be the kind that would make them laugh.)

Assessment: The children’s enjoyment.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To experience the action of exchange (the root of the meaning of change itself.).

Activity: Children play the Change Game. One child could also do this alone with another person telling her/him what to do.
Ask the children to do the following three things:
1. Curl up small, then stand up tall. (Be sure to clap when they do it.)
2. Sit right here, then go sit over there. (Being shown where here and there is.)
3. Put on this cap, now put it in your lap, and put on this second cap.
(You will need enough caps for each child to be able to take the first one off and put the second one on. It would be great if they could be the kind that would make them laugh.)

Assessment: The children’s enjoyment.


Objective: To define the word “change” (root=exchange-one thing for another).

Activity: Ask the children what just happened. Elicit from them that they were changing things. Move the discussion to the idea of exchange, the notion that we take one thing and substitute it for another. You might ask why anyone would want to do that. The children will begin to see that different needs bring about different exchanges. You might even briefly touch on barter, how things worked before money was invented, how people exchanged things. Ask them finally if they notice how things change all around us. How have they changed in some past unit of time, the last year, since your birthday, etc. (Make this decision depending on their ages.) The ending of the discussion at this point leads directly to the Quadrant Two, Right Mode activity.

Assessment: The quality of the children’s understanding of the idea of change.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To have the children visualize the idea of change.

Activity: A Metaphor Activity.
Ask the children to complete the following sentence:
Change is like _________, because ______________.
They can either do this alone, in pairs or in groups.

Assessment: Clarity of understanding of the concept as illustrated by the metaphor. Be sure to spend some time understanding the children’s answers. Often we do not allow them to tell us how they process and many times their thinking is far more profound than we imagine, or even could come up with ourselves.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: That the children enjoy the book

Activity: Read the story An Egg Is an Egg.

Assessment: The attentiveness of the children.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To determine if the children connected to the details of the story.

Activity: Have the children name three things that changed in the story and how they changed.

Assessment: The understanding of the story details

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To enhance the children’s awareness of the naturalness of change in their own lives.

Activity: Have the children draw a picture of three changes they have experienced in their lives

Assessment: The connection to the reality of their lives. Be sure to take the time when they finish to have the children display and explain their pictures.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: That the children will come to understand that while some things change it is also true that some things stay the same.

Activity: Have the children pick out one person in their lives who never changes to them and make a thank-you card for that person.

Assessment: The enjoyment and meaning of the activity for the children.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: That the children will have an opportunity to experience celebration and thankfulness.

Activity: Surprise that special person by giving them the card. Report back on how that person reacted.

Assessment: The pleasure the children experience and report

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