A full day: firefighters and fire safety · Week 1, Thursday

Key question: what do firefighters need to do their job?

• Morning Meeting (20 min): read George and the Firefighters by Margret Rey.
• Literacy (20 min): talk about what questions the class can ask the firefighter when they come to speak. What is the difference between a question and a comment? Write a list of what the children want to know about being a firefighter.
• Math (40 min): each child copies their home phone number and address, and 911. Talk about how these are important numbers to know in case of an emergency.

+ 2 more in the full excerpt

What is a map? · Week 3, Wednesday

Key question: how do mail carriers know where to go?

• Morning Meeting (20 min): read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney and recite the class's mail carrier poem.
• Literacy (40 min): a cardboard box turned into mail slots, one per child. They write notes to friends and put them in each other's mailboxes.
• Math (40 min): sorting mail by numbers. Number paper mailboxes 1 to 10; children match index cards with dots or numerals to the right mailbox and deliver the mail.

+ 2 more in the full excerpt

How could we clean up an oil spill? · Week 6, Wednesday

Daily big idea: there is more than one way to solve a problem. The class already wrote its shared problem statement: the problem is ___; a good cleanup needs to ___.

• Literacy (15 min): revisit the 'what we know about the problem' chart and reference images of real cleanup tools: booms that corral oil, skimmers that lift it, sorbents that soak it up.
• Math (15 min): finalize the fair test. How exactly will we judge which method works better? Count droppers of oil removed, rate the water 1 to 3 for clearness, or compare how clean the feather looks.
• Inquiry Centers (25 min): each group sketches two cleanup approaches, labels how each is meant to work, and gathers materials from the supply table: cotton balls, sponges, spoons, string, a drop of dish soap, paper towels, mesh.

+ 1 more in the full excerpt