Goals:

1. The students will have the understanding of the real life size of a whale.

2. Students will be able to use their creative writing skills to write their own story.

Resources:

1. The life size whale model from the St. Norbert College Education Department will be needed. Linda Clay is the main person to contact.

Time: This activity will take approximately 4 hours for the construction of the whale and the size activities and 1 hour for the creative writing activity.

Materials:

the life size whale and parts

writing materials

Procedures:

This activity will be a large group project since the construction of the whale takes a large group of people.

Step 1- The first step will be to put together and construct the life size whale. This should be done as a team. The instructions are included in the package.

Step 2- After the whale is constructed, students will compare their height with the actual height of the model whale and calculate the difference. They will record their observations and thoughts in their journals.

Step 3- Next, students will lay down on the ground to see how many bodies long it takes to make the length of the whale and then calculate the difference of the length of the whale compared to the length of the student. Again, students will record their observations in their journals.

Step 4- After the whale construction, students will write a creative writing story in their journals on "A Day in the Life of a Whale" and read them to the class on a later date.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on their participation in the whale construction as well as their journal entries and creative writing story.

4 points= The students significantly participated in the class simulation.

3 points= The students adequately participated in the class simulation.

2 points= The student moderately participated in the class simulation.

1 point= The student did not participate in the class simulation.

4 points= Demonstrated knowledge to an excellent degree in the journal entry.

3 points= Demonstrated knowledge to an acceptable degree in the journal entry.

2 points= Demonstrated some knowledge in the journal entry.

1 points= Demonstrated no knowledge in the journal entry.

4 points= Demonstrated creativity to an excellent degree.

3 points= Demonstrated creativity to an acceptable degree.

2 points= Demonstrated creativity to some degree.

1 point= Demonstrated little creativity.

0 points= Demonstrated no creativity.

4 points= Demonstrated correct grammar to an excellent degree.

3 points= Demonstrated correct grammar to an acceptable degree.

2 points= Demonstrated correct grammar to some degree.

1 point= Demonstrated little amount of correct grammar.

Curricular Strands and Major Concepts:

1. Language Arts- Journal entries and creative writing story.

2. Science- Identification of whale length and height.

3. Math- Calculating the differences of the height and length of the student compared to the height and length of the whale.

Extensions:

1. Students could do an extensive research project on a whale of their choice.

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