We have been exploring various Applied, Design, Skills and Technology stations in the library with Ms. Field.

Through the exploration of each station, we are able to:

The construction of our communities has been progressing quite nicely over the past week. Some communities have developed their building structures and occupations, some have their transportation routes established, and others have been refining their natural resources that surround their community.

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Today we hit the pause button on the building of our communities and instead took our work to pencil and paper. As a group, we are working on developing laws for our community.

Why are rules and laws important?

Who develops these laws?

What would our world look like without laws?

In Social Studies we are talking all about communities.

What is a community? —-> Who lives in a community? —-> What is inclusion? —-> What does an inclusive community look like?

Students are working in groups to design and construct their very own community. We are in the preliminary  stages were we are (a) learning to effectively and respectfully communicate to our group members (b) actively communicating to have our ideas expressed and heard; but also to have a listening ear and open mind to others’ ideas (c) plotting out and brainstorming how our community would appear from a bird’s eye view perspective.

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Questions and criteria to consider include the following:

• include at least 5 occupations in your community, what will those be?
• include roads as a form of transportation throughout your community
• what rules/and or laws will your community live by? —-> this led to a conversation around why do we need rules/laws to live by? —-> what would our class, school, community, country, world look like without laws?
• include natural resources within/and or surrounding your community
• how will your community protect + conserve the natural resources surrounding your community?

We read the book The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates (which is a wonderfully adorable book with a powerful message). Ask your child how the big umbrella was inclusive? How are you inclusive to others around you? How do you contribute to living in an inclusive community?

Coding? What is Coding?

Today we were introduced to a hot topic, Coding. Coding, also called programming, is a skill-set that students will be using in their future, such as high school, University and perhaps even a career as a skilled coder or programmer. Coding is a beneficial skill to add to our tool-belts as it also supports our development in perseverance and problem-solving.

Today we used the fundamental concepts of coding by following the instructions of a code and successfully followed it. The students caught onto this like wild fire. Stay tuned as we will be incorporating this coding concept into an upcoming Social Studies project.

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Last week students were assigned into small groups to write down an “I wonder” question that focused on our study of Seasonal Rounds. Immediately, students, or should I say our inquirers, started developing questions around habitats, seasonal rounds, seasonal change and survival needs and adaptations of living things. Please read through some of the “I wonder” questions that were generated last week – they are exceptional!

Students entered the classroom today after lunch recess to a plethora of new books that would aid in their exploration.

Our inquirers could NOT WAIT to dive in!

Students immediately took to the role of becoming inquirers and were excited to look, read, discuss and share their new discoveries that they independently uncovered.

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Stay tuned!