Our First Unit! All About SYSTEMS!

Hello Everyone!

Now posted on our classroom wall is unit #1 about SYSTEMS! 

Unit Focus Statement:

Our personal choices play a role in how the interconnected system of the human body works. 

Concept Guiding the Unit:  SYSTEMS

Core Competency Focus Areas: Personal Awareness & Critical Thinking

Areas of Inquiry:

  • The nature of systems and how we participate in them
  • The systems of the body and how they work together
  • Diseases and how the body defends against them
  • Choices and personal awareness that contribute to our overall well being
  • How we gather, organize, and interpret data to make healthy choices
  • Environmental impacts on our health
  • Indigenous and world perspectives on health
  • How art and mindfulness practices are related to mental and physical wellness
  • French vocabulary and basic expressions about the human body

Learning Activities Coming Up:

  • Discussions about Universal Systems found everywhere through activities such as Roller Coaster Making and Scrappy Circuits
  • Investigations about body systems through rotating learning stations
  • Field Trip on Oct. 11th to Science World to see stage show on Digestion, as well as IMAX movie “Human Body”
  • Research on a body system of choice and writing a letter to the Human Body Corporation about why your system is the most important to the body
  • Gathering measurement data about ourselves and graphing it
  • Math from the book Math on the Job:Keeping us Healthy, practicing math used by health practitioners
  • Math games around data and probability, as well as lessons on mean, mode, and median. 
  • Discussions and labs related to DNA/Genetics (Strawberry DNA extraction), Brain Science, Immunity, and Blood Types (not with real blood!)
  • A walking field trip and activities in Central Park
  • Art activities related to personal exploration and mindfulness such as zentangling, black ink group art, and hive art.
  • Research on a Disease of our choice and presenting using PPT
  • And more to come…..!

Stay tuned on Twitter as I give daily pictures when possible related to our unit work.

Also, please be aware of the many notices going home this week and return them to school the day after you receive them if possible. If you have any questions, as always, please email me!

I look forward to the next month! Ms. Boroumand, our student teacher, will be joining us next week on Sept. 17 and 18, and then she will begin her formal practicum in our classroom on Sept. 22nd.

Parent Conferences are on Sept. 18 and 19. Please note these are conferences for parent and teacher to talk. The meetings are also very brief and back to back, so I will do my best to stay on time. I apologize in advance for using a timer during our meetings to help me stay on track! I look forward to speaking with all of you, and a notice for signing up will come out Sept. 10th, Tuesday.

Kindly,

Ms. D