Bedrooms Around the World

Central Idea: 
Learning about similarities and differences between cultures can help us understand ourselves. 

Lines of Inquiry: 

• Similarities and differences within and between cultures 
• How to investigate cultures 
• How our thinking about 'others' can change 

Learner Profile: Open-minded, Reflective 

Attitudes: Respect, Appreciation, Curiosity

During this unit, my second graders and I have learned that everyone has a culture and that culture shapes how we see the world, ourselves, and others. 

We started off recognizing the aspects of culture that are most visible, such as food, language, and clothing, but now we're recognizing that others are not as visible, such as our values, assumptions, and priorities.

Children have been exploring how our interaction with the environment and others shapes one's culture. 

One of the activities has been to look at the similarities and differences of children's bedrooms around the world. Children sorted the bedrooms into their own categories like: Beautiful/Not Beautiful, Poor/Not Poor, Toys/No Toys, Clean/Dirty, Comfortable/Not Comfortable.

I asked my students to continue the conversation at home with these questions:

• What photographs interested or surprised you most? Why? 
• What questions did those photos raise for you? 
• What can these photos tell you about the lives of the people pictured? 
• What do you think they can’t tell you?

Some rather insightful comments have come up because of this activity: 

• "It doesn't seem fair that we have such nice bedrooms just because our families have money." 
• "I would be very sad if I had that bedroom."
• "Why do some children have more or less than others?"
• "I'm lucky to be born into my family."
• "What if I was that child?"
• "I think having too much in your bedroom or too much stuff in your house doesn't make someone happy. Just because some of the bedrooms don't have much it doesn't mean that those kids are not good or that we are better."

Our Family Culture

Central Idea: 
Learning about similarities and differences between cultures can help us understand ourselves. 

Lines of Inquiry: 

• Similarities and differences within and between cultures 
• How to investigate cultures 
• How our thinking about 'others' can change 

Learner Profile: Open-minded, Reflective 
Attitudes: Respect, Appreciation, Curiosity

As part of our unit of inquiry, we have been looking at culture and what better way to do that than by incorporating the families’ presence in the classroom environment. It's so important to set an atmosphere of comfort, safety, and family. I believe the way you make your class feel is how they will respond while in your classroom. 

adding students' family pictures helps to make it their classroom too

A simple way we've tried to make our classroom more comforting and homey for the children is for them to see their family photos displayed in the classroom.  Families were asked to email a family photo to add to our window. Each student was given the chance to explain who was in the photo and answer questions about their family. Not only did they enjoy sharing about their family, it gave everyone a common ground to start from when discussing how families are a part of our cultural identity.

I had my students further the school to home discussion by asking their families the following questions: What is your favorite family tradition?

Nepal Earthquake Teachable Moment

As part of our unit of inquiry on migration, we asked our second grade students to reflect on the many reasons why people choose to, or are forced to leave their homes.

One student started a really intense conversation by connecting what we were learning to the tragedy of the Nepal earthquake. What a teachable moment! When the students broke for recess, our team quickly pulled together some before and after pictures of Nepal to continue the conversation and to show a very real migration event that was happening in "real life."

Here is what we presented to our students for them to reflect and connect to our unit of inquiry:

On Saturday 25th April, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Kathmandu, Nepal. According to the UN 8,000,000 people have been affected by the earthquake. UNICEF says 1,000,000 children will be affected. 

Student Led Conference Parent Exit Slips

After having the opportunity to engage, witness and be a part of their child's learning, we asked parents to share with us their experience during student-led conferences by answering the following questions:

1. What skills and understandings did your child show?
2. What do you and your child think their next steps in learning should be?

student led conferences

Art Museum Recount Writing

What better way to develop our writing skills than writing some fantastic recounts about our excursion to the Art Museum, our weekends, and memorable memories? 

My second graders have recently been learning to write recounts of past events in interesting and engaging ways. We've also learned to write an introduction/orientation, a sequence of events, and then finishing our recounts with a feeling sentence or personal comment.

As the students write, they have been using their own personal writing chart, which helps them to see the criteria they need to show in their writing to become more proficient. During conferencing, students are asked to refer to a particular area in their writing as they describe their achievements and future goals for improvement!

organizing recount writing using visual color cues

We are working on including sequencing words, using attention-grabbing adjectives and details to give more information. We are also becoming more confident at correctly structuring a recount. We began with fact-filled introductions answering the when, who, what, where, and why questions. 

After some solid introductions, the students recalled a few of the minor events that were most important to them. Each minor event is explained in detail in its own paragraph using an appropriate transition word. Finally, our recounts conclude with a feeling sentence, recommendation, or personal comment.