I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Caring

Essential Question:

How would you explain what “real love” is?

Bridge:

The Best Gifts Visual

Content:

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To have the children share their experiences of those who care for them.

Activity: Have the children draw a picture of “someone who cares for you”. Have the children tell about that person in their small groups.

Assessment: Picture tone (smiling, arms held out etc.) and quality of details, also the ability to communicate about the person in the picture.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To examine the characteristics of caring.

Activity: Have the children list the ways that we know someone cares for us. Finish the sentence, “Caring about someone means…”

Assessment: Completeness of the list: comforting, giving medicine to, supporting, taking time, and so on.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To have the children become more aware of the beauty of giving as well as receiving.

Activity: Have the children divide a piece of drawing paper in half. Title the paper: “One of the best gifts.” Ask the children to draw on one half of the page one of the best gifts they ever received and on the other half of the page a picture of one of the best fits they ever gave. Then ask the children to tell the stories of their pictures.

Assessment: Understanding shown by the stories they tell and details in the pictures.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To understand and enjoy the book.

Activity: Read Tommy’s Mommy’s Fish.

Assessment: Attentiveness and understanding of the story on the part of the children.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To elicit from the children the details and the meaning of the story.

Activity: Ask the following questions:
Why was Tommy’s Mommy so pleased that Tommy let the fish go?
Who gave life to Tommy?
Who gave life to Tommy’s Mommy?
List the kind of gifts that give people life.

Assessment: Quality of responses.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: That the children are better able to visualize people giving of themselves.

Activity: Have the children make a collage that could include their own drawings or even photographs of people giving of themselves. Have them talk about their picture choices in their small groups. Then post the collages in a gallery entitled “The Best Gifts”.

Assessment:The level of understanding the children show through their pictures.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To have the children ponder the true meaning of giving.

Activity: Ask the following questions: What did Tommy’s Mommy really get from Tommy for her birthday?

Assessment: The discussion, does it zero in on the true meaning of giving?

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To have the children experience giving of themselves.

Activity: Have the children choose some way to give a gift of themselves. Then have them write about, or tell about, or draw about how they felt and how the person they helped felt.

Assessment: Did the children have a meaningful experience?

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