Unit 3: Where We are in Place and Time

-


Unit 3: Where we are in Place and Time


This unit our school was practicing being balanced and flexible! We were both online and in school. The grade 2 students did an amazing job of adjusting to our changes and succeeding with all of the tasks that were placed in front of them. 

Our central idea for this unit was: Exploration has a lasting impact on both people and the plant. We explored ideas and imaginings about exploration as well as about indigenous people. 


First, we thought about exploration in our own lives and about what it means to explore. We took turns sharing places that we have explored, and places that we'd like to explore more. We thought about the central idea and took about each section for further inspection. 



We liked learning about explorers in the past and their impact on the world. We learned about famous explorers from near and far, from the far in the past and some from more recent history.  We enjoyed learning about explorers such as Ibn Battuta, Felicity Aston, Matthew Henson, and Neil Armstrong, 



We learned about some different indigenous tribes and their culture; making crafts and learning danced. Exploration had a huge impact of those people already living in those places. We reflected on what it mush have been like. We talked about some of the hardship and unfairness that indigenous peoples faced during those times of exploration.  


We took time to think about the future of exploration and what has yet to be explorer. We acknowledged that explorers of the sea and of space are risk-takers on an adventure, and thought about if that rewards of exploration are worth the risks. 

We reflected on ourselves and imagined our own explorations. Some of of choose to imagine exploring the deep sea, some of us places a little closer to home. We made sure to bring all of the correct provisions on our journey to ensure is would be both safe and profitable. We know what explorers had many reasons for exploring, like money, fame, spices, land, and advancement. Most of our explorations centered around finding new things and making scientific advances. We wrote journal entries about what it might have been like and new things we might discover. 



Finally, we presented the tales of our adventures to other explorers (our classmates)

 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unit 2: How the World Works

-
Image
  Unit 2: How the World Works Central Idea: People use their understanding of natural laws to manipulate objects.  We have had quite a busy first term! During this unit we learned about forces and simple machines! We talked about push and pull, and how machines help up use less force to move an object. In the pictures below we were miming push and pull and our friends had to guess which one we were showing! Can you tell if we are showing push or pull? When learning about simple machines we learned about incline planes. Students designed their own marble mazes out of Legos. Students used their knowledge of incline planes and forces to guide their marble through the maze.  In Japanese students made their own recycles cars and connected it to our learning about wheels and axels! Students worked in teams to create their own Rube Goldberg machines to complete a task. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a complicated machine used to complete a simple task. We were very ambitious with ou...
Read more

Blog #13- September 6th, 2019 👀

-
Image
Grade 2- Blog #13- September 4th- September 6th, 2019 LOOKING BACK Students study a map of the world. Placing our stickers on the places we have explored/ want to explore! More mapping!   Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a nice summer vacation, whether you traveled the world or relaxed here in Osaka with your family! We had a short week this week, as students (and teachers!!) adjusted to being back at school! Still, it was an exciting first three days, as we prepared to start new units in math, English, and Unit of Inquiry, and as we welcomed a new student, Riko, to our class! Going on a listening walk through the school. Listening for different sounds on the sidewalk! For UOI time, students began to develop a sense of  "exploration". We explored the whole school by going on a "Listening Walk", we explored our classroom environment by using a treasure map, and we explored our community by finding out more about one another. Stud...
Read more

Sharing the planet

-
Image
 Hello and apologies for the missing blogs recently. I hope you enjoyed the photos on Seesaw at least. This week grade 2 started a new unit of inquiry (UOI) related to the transdisciplinary theme: Sharing the planet .  Our central idea is: People's response to conflict impacts the quality of human life. We spent this week breaking down the words. We started by talking about how people share the planet and how this can be difficult in terms of sharing the resources of the planet.  For e.g. What is conflict? How do we see it in daily life and in the world? What is quality of life? We did an activity about needs and wants and discussed what is absolutely essential for a child to have a good life.  We also talked about peace. Is peace just the absence of war? If I am a child and I don't get 3 meals a day and don't have enough clothes but I live in a rich country like Australia, am I really living a peaceful life? On Thursday we watched a short animation about Sadako Sas...
Read more