School Improvement in Maryland
 
Lost and Found - Health, Library Media Skills, English Language Arts, Social Studies, Performance-Based Instructional Task
Lost and Found
Overview
Students sing a song about safety, then listen to the story, Just Lost!, by Gina and Mercer Mayer. They identify behaviors basic to safe daily living, describe rules people make and use to help keep children safe and identify individuals in the community who can help them be safe. Using what they know and what they have learned, children then add a verse to the safety song and sing it to a kindergarten class to let younger students know how to keep themselves safe.
 
 
Table of Contents
.Outcome Activity Match
.Teacher Directions
.Materials Required
.Estimated Time
.Student Booklet (272k Acrobat)
.Assessment Information
 
Maryland Learner Outcomes
 Health:
. #1 Health Concepts:
Safety & Injury Prevention
.#3 Health Behaviors
.#4 Communication Skills
 Library Media Skills:
.Outcome #3
 Social Studies:
.#1 Political Systems
.#5 Skills & Processes
.#6 Valuing Self & Others
.#7 Understandings & Attitudes
 English Language Arts:
.Listening (Standard)

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 Outcome/ Indicator Activity Match

Activities             Outcomes/Indicators
Activity 1A       #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
There are people, places, and situations that may be hazardous to one's health and safety.
Activity 1B
 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
Taking precautions and following rules can help a person be safer.
Activity 2
 #3 Health Behaviors
Compare behaviors that are safe to those that are risky.
Outcome #3 (Library Media Skills)
Use reference skills to locate information in a variety of sources.
Listening (Standard)
(Proficiency) Apply listening strategies to receive, interpret, and respond to messages.
Activity 3
 #3 Health Behaviors
Compare behaviors that are safe to those that are risky.
Listening (Standard)
(Proficiency) Apply listening strategies to receive, interpret, and respond to messages.
Activity 4 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
Taking precautions and following rules can help a person be safer.
#1 Political Systems
Describe the processes people use for making and changing rules within the family, school, and community.
Activity 5
 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
There are people and places in the community that promote a safe and healthy environment.
#1 Political Systems
Describe ways in which individuals and groups bring about civic improvement.
Activity 6 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
Taking precautions and following rules can help a person be safer.
Activity 7
 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
There are behaviors that are basic to safe daily living.
#6 Valuing Self & Others
Provide examples of social institutions [the family] and the media that have an impact on individuals.
#7 Understandings & Attitudes
Propose rules that promote order and fairness in various situations.
Activity 8 #1 Health Concepts: Safety & Injury Prevention
There are people and places in the community that promote a safe and healthy environment.
#1 Political Systems
Describe ways in which individuals and groups bring about civic improvement.
Activities 9A & B
 #3 Health Behaviors
Describe ways to avoid and reduce threatening situations.
#4 Communication Skills
Apply a variety of methods to convey accurate health information and ideas.
#1 Political Systems
Describe ways in which individuals and groups bring about civic improvement.
#5 Skills & Processes
Interact with others in groups to achieve common goals.

 Teacher Directions Extensive teacher involvement is essential as students work through the instructional activities. In general, the directions in the Student Booklet are self-explanatory. Specific notes are as follows.

Introduction.
There are many children's songs about safety. You may choose one that students know, or use the one provided with this task Never Talk To Strangers .

Read the introduction in the Student Booklet with the students and then sing the song. When students are comfortable with the words, conduct a class discussion. Have students identify two safe behaviors found in the words of the song (e.g., do not talk to strangers, do not get into cars, do not take anything from strangers). Ask which of these rules they would follow when going to a mall with their families. Expand the discussion by asking students to identify some rules of safe behavior that they follow in the classroom and other parts of the school.

Read the remainder of the introduction and be sure students understand what is expected of them.

Note: These activities require a certain level of reading ability. If needed, read activities to students, making sure they know what is expected of them.

Activity 1.
Have students select partners or assign each student a partner with whom to work. When students have completed Steps A and B, review their responses orally. You may wish to make a web on the chalkboard that links the responses in Step B with the places identified in Step A.

Activity 2.
Tell students they are now going to listen to a book, Just Lost!, which is about a character named Little Critter who gets lost in a shopping mall. Instruct them to listen carefully to find the safe and unsafe behaviors of Little Critter. After they listen to the story, have students complete the chart on their own.

Activity 3.
Tell students they should listen for other things that happened to Little Critter that they did not list on the chart. Then reread the story to the students. After the rereading of the story, read aloud each of the seven sentences in the Student Booklet and allow time for students to complete the “happy” or “sad” face as directed. In a discussion, ask students to compare responses to Activity 3 with those to Activity 2.

Activities 4-7.
Students should answer these questions on their own.

Activity 8.
This activity assumes prior knowledge of community workers and the services they provide. If needed, this activity may be completed as a class discussion.

Activity 9.
Step A. With the students, sing the song from the introduction again. Remind students that they have learned about behaviors to help keep children safe. These are to be used as students work with their partners to list ideas for the song.

Step B. This culminating activity will require coordination and creativity on the part of the teacher. Through discussion techniques, you will need to help students use the ideas listed in Step A to develop the words of a new verse for the song, which fits the melody. As the students decide on the words to the new verse, write them on the chalkboard or chart paper. Then have students copy the words into their booklets. Practice singing the song.

Most important, arrange a specific day and time with a kindergarten teacher so that your students may perform their song.

Extension Activities.
  1. Students can draw pictures to go with their song. These can be given to the kindergarten teacher to put up in his/her classroom to promote safe behavior.
  2. Students may sing their song during morning announcements, at a school assembly or for a parent night or meeting.

 
 
Materials Required Sheet music of song, or sheet music or audio recording of another “safety” song of your choice. The song “Never Talk to Strangers” is one option.
Mayer, Gina, and Mercer Mayer. Just Lost! Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1994.
Drawing materials for Extension Activity 1 (optional).
 
 
Estimated Time This task requires a total of approximately 110 minutes to complete. The activities can easily be spread over two or more days of instruction. It might be necessary to review the story with the students on each succeeding day.
 
  Introduction:   10 minutes
Activity 1: 15 minutes
Activity 2: 20 minutes
Activity 3: 5 minutes
Activities 4-7: 20 minutes
Activity 8: 10 minutes
Activity 9: 30 minutes

 
 
Student Booklet 
(272k) Acrobat
 
 
Assessment Information Rationale.
You may want to focus on particular activities to evaluate student progress on a certain indicator and outcome. For the purposes of this exemplar task, sample scoring tools are provided for Activities 3 and 5.

Activity 3. Below is a list of some of the things that happened in the story you just listened to. Now listen carefully as your teacher reads each one to you.
 
  .   Draw a happy face if what happened was safe.
. Draw a sad face if what happened was unsafe.

 
  This activity measures Health Outcome #3, Health Behaviors. Responses are gauged on a 0 - 3 scoring tool.
Scoring Tool: The response provides evidence of the ability to compare behaviors that are safe to those that are unsafe.
  3: The response provides 7 correct responses.
2: The response provides 5 or 6 correct responses.
1: The response provides 3 or 4 correct responses.
0: All other responses.
Answer Cue:
 
A.   .   D.   .   G.   .
B. . E. .    
C. . F. .    


Activity 5. Name at least two things that people who work at the mall could do to make it a safer place to visit.
 
  This activity measures Health Outcome #1, Health Content Concepts, and Social Studies Outcome #1, Political Systems. Responses are gauged on a 0 - 2 scoring tool.
Scoring Tool: The response provides evidence of the ability to describe individuals, groups and/or places in the community that bring about civic improvement by promoting a safe and healthy environment.
  2: The response identifies 2 or more reasonable ways that people who work at the mall could make it a safer place to visit.
1: The response identifies 1 way that people who work at the mall could make it a safer place to visit.
0: All other responses.
Sample Response:
  Have a place in the mall where kids can go.
Have a place by the outside door for kids to get ID tags.
Have security guards look out for kids who may be lost.
Give all the parents leaflets that tell how to help keep their kids safe at the mall.

 
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