New Unit: The Way We Move!

Hello Everyone,

This past week, we began a new inquiry unit called The Way We Move!

Unit Focus Statement: Migration is a response to challenges, risks, survival, and a natural need to explore.

Concepts: EXPLORATION, IDENTITY

Core Competency: Positive Personal & Cultural Identity

Areas of Inquiry:

  • The nature of exploration
  • The reasons people move throughout the world
  • Human migration and its impact on Canada, indigenous cultures, and the world
  • The similarities between humanity and other animals as related to migration
  • Our own personal and cultural identity as a result of migration
  • Biomes of the world
  • Geography and maps
  • Personal narrative writing as related to identity
  • Tiny House Math Projects (Area, Perimeter, Multiplication, Division) related to what is most important to us
  • French Country Mini Project, as well as ongoing vocabulary learning

We look forward to….

  • Doing exploration of our identity, of our outside spaces, and more through the use of careful observation and documentation skills
  • Studying migratory birds and other animals, tracking their journeys and reporting about them in Puppet Pals
  • Writing mini stories designed to strengthen our idea-generation strategies, paragraphing, dialogue writing, and conventions
  • Making mini bird feeders for our playground trees
  • Creating a class map of our own family’s migration paths
  • Interviewing community members about immigration stories
  • Doing a group research timeline on how we all came to be in Canada, then writing mini monologues to present some of the key figures and events from our history
  • Making a Quilt of Belonging piece representative of our Cultural Background/Identity
  • Reading and analyzing books/stories related to immigration and refugees
  • Discussing immigration policies in Canada, and then making our own immigration policy for a made-up location
  • Doing activities and games related to multiplication, division, and geometry skills
  • Creating our own dance exploration and sharing with peers in PE
  • Finishing our Spindle Whorls, technology debates, and mini research on one of the indigenous groups of BC

Plans may change depending on time and other events going on at the school. We will do as much as we can in February and early March, and finish this unit before we go to Spring Break, or just after we return. Next unit will be on NEEDS and WANTS, talking about resources, geology, economics, trade, and more. Our independent project research and work will be ongoing from now until June.

More to come!

Ms. D