FALL INQUIRY PROJECT GRADE 2/3 SOCIAL STUDIES How Does My Uniqueness Influence My Community?

FRONT LOADING  We talked about perspectives and what makes perspectives unique using the Nelson Literacies “My Stories”.  We talked about families using different literature, adding some cultural elements to the lessons. Everyone drew pictures of their families so they could visually see the differences.  Students created an identity web independently which tied into our ELA idea planning.  We then spent some time on the idea of belonging and inclusion through literature and introduced the idea of community.  We then made a class quilt with each student picking an element in which they will be able to contribute to their class community.

CLASS QUILT ON WHAT THEY CAN DO TO INFLUENCE THEIR CLASSROOM

ACTIVITIES  Artifacts- Students brought in an artifact that represented their uniqueness (lots were culturally based but many were also based on traditions or family).  Guest speaker- brought in a parent/self employed day care/parent council president to discuss with students how she impacts the community. We chose a none typical person who is impacting in a variety ways.  Interview- Students interviewed their parents on how they are impacting their community.  Letter to a community member- Thanking some one who makes a difference in the community or a letter to themselves in the future (gr 8) with how they hope to impact their community

VOKI -future community impact -when I grow up

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD Gift of Hope- students chose to raise money for gift of hope. We had a long john sale with proceeds used to buy a class in a third world country a well. It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3: for students to be healthy, they need access to clean water. In our part of the world, it’s a given that schools will have water fountains, sinks, toilets. But in many parts of the world, it’s not. Many children go to schools without latrines, even without access to basic water pumps. This gift is about changing that. When you do the math, it all adds up.

ELA- with our letter writing and script writing. Science -regarding healthy drinking water and the purchase of the well. Art- science extension with our clay creations showing how each student can express their uniqueness. Cross Curricular connections

PRESENTATION OF CUMULATIVE ACTIVITIES  We presented the Voki and the paper slide during the three way conferences.  The students showed a great amount of pride when showing their slides.  I think it meant a lot for the students to be able to share with their parents individually because of the depth of the learning.

SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES  The technology that I used was easily adapted.  All students were successful in creating the final products.  We had some very deep conversations e.g. different families.  Many of the students self-assessments were very positive and showed me that a lot of connections had ben made.  The students that had difficulty were able to make the necessary connections with individual conversations.  The question and concepts were a bit lofty for the grade 2 students, especially EAL students.  I would probably have worked a bit more with sentence starters for the EAL students. This may have made their projects a bit more successful.  Keeping the depth throughout the entire final answer. ( everyone had some depth but then would revert back to the surface answers).  These students did not have a lot of technology expertise- we tried doing wordles with their care partners but this caused different issues. E.g. Misspelled names, less connections as older care partners answered a lot for them.