I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Comfortableness, Favorite Places

Essential Question:

Why does your most comfortable place suit you well?

Bridge:

My Most Comfortable Place

Content:

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To help the children look at animals and things that belong together.

Activity: Make ten cards, each with a word or phrase and a picture of the following: soap, a cereal bowl, a puppy, a tree, a bird, a bathtub, a garden, a flower, a dog house, some cereal.
Then tell the children to arrange the ten cards in the following way:
put the cereal in the garden
the flower in the dog house
the soap in the cereal bowl
the puppy in the tree and
the bird in the bathtub.
Ask the children if things are where they belong. When they answer in the negative, (there will be much laughter) have them put the things where they belong.

Assessment: Did the children enjoy the task, did they get the point that sometimes things belong in certain places?

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To create a list of how we know where things belong. The purpose is to get the children to ponder the reasons people choose some things rather than other things.

Activity: Create a list to answer the question: How do we know where things belong?

Assessment: The quality of the list and the understanding of the relationships. Look for answers on function, the soap and the bathtub, physical capability, the bird in the tree and like species, the flowers and the garden

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To reflect on the choices people make about the things that make them comfortable.

Activity: Have the children draw a picture of a place that really suits them, a place where they feel “just right”.

Assessment: The ability of the children to understand the concept of comfortableness and the quality of the details in the picture

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To enhance their understanding that each of us in unique and teo enjoy the book.

Activity: Have a brief discussion on how we are all different about what suits us best. Also how are we alike? Then read the story Make Way for Ducklings.

Assessment: Children’s understanding and acceptance of each other’s idiosyncrasies and their attentiveness and enjoyment of the story.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To check on understanding of the main points of the story, and to enhance the children’s appreciation of how public servants help us.

Activity: Ask the students to answer the following questions:
What hazards did Mr. and Mrs. Mallard face? List them.
How did Mrs. Mallard know when she found the “right place”?
Look up what “molting” means.
Have the students write a thank you note to Michael, the policeman, for helping the family make their way through the traffic.

Assessment: Accuracy of their replies and quality of the note to Michael, the policeman.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To help the children examine the “right places” in their lives.

Activity: Ask the children to think of three things they could do to make their favorite place even more right for them.

Assessment: The quality of the choices and their reasons for choosing

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To reflect on an experience.

Activity: Have the children enhance their favorite places. Have them write about what happens.

Assessment: The quality of the responses.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To have the children share their learning with each other.

Activity: Have students draw an illustration of your favorite place and add it to your writing piece. Gather the work into a book, Our Favorite Places.

Assessment: The presentation and the interest from the other children.

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