Another Great Collaborative Inquiry

Students in Mr. Lewis's class were inquiring into their friends' interests at school, hobbies outside of school, and places they like to visit.

A Celebrations Inquiry

A Landmarks Breakout

Students adored the challenge of our landmarks breakout. 

Our Community

Mrs. Derksen's class was learning about communities, specifically community members' responsibilities and how we rely on each other.  This group of students chose to show their learning in a video. We brainstormed how we could communicate the ideas of responsibilities and interconnectedness in a movie.  The students had a very clear idea of what to include.  They then set out to collect the footage of shoot it themselves.  After compiling the movie, the students shared it with the rest of their classmates.

 

Breakout EDU Workshop

G1 teachers participated in a voluntary Breakout EDU workshop.  Some of their colleagues have been busy collaborating with tech coaches to design and create breakout boxes that match the G1 curriculum.  To date, we have x2 Social Studies breakouts and x1 math breakout.  This session was an opportunity for teachers unfamiliar with breakouts to discover what they are really all about by experiencing one!

The teachers were thrilled to know more about breakouts and to know that there are already options for them to use immediately with their classes.   

What do you know about peace? An Intro to an Inquiry

Kindergarten students in Ms. wan's class are going to begin an inquiry into peace.  In order to activate any prior knowledge and 'tune in' to information students already know, Ms. Wan asked that each student share what the word peace made them think.  Here is a video.    

Connect Making to the Curriculum

Make a Digital Map of Singapore

Grade 1 students are learning about popular destinations and landmarks in Singapore for part of their Social Studies unit.  During this particular lesson, students began activating prior knowledge and growing their knowledge in a fun partner whiteboard quiz.  Locations are called out and partnerships have to look at a map with numbered destinations on it.  Students decide which number represents that location and writes it down on their whiteboard.  The teacher then shares the correct number that correlates with that location.  After all of the locations are discovered, students use the app of their choice to make a map of Singapore and include a minimum of 3 landmarks discussed in the beginning of the lesson.

Here are some student samples:

       

        

 

Google Map for Reference

Embedding Digital Citizenship Lessons into G1 Q1 SS Unit

Grade 1 Social Studies committee members have been working with their tech coach to develop an updated Our Community unit in order to embed digital citizenship lessons.  Our Community is a unit that focuses on:

• both 'real-world' and 'online' communities
• student roles and responsibilities within these various communities (classroom, school, neighborhood, online)
• the variety of ways people within communities communicate with each other

Four digital citizenship lessons will be explicitly taught either by the classroom teacher, tech coach, and/or librarian.  Optional follow up lessons are also provided for teachers to reinforce these key concepts and skills.

    

Blogging in Grade 1

Students in Grade 1 are becoming pretty capable bloggers!  The app of choice to use is Easy Blogger which makes blogging so easy for some of our youngest students.  Students are expected to include some form of media (photo, video, or both) and an explanation or description of their learning.  In the posts pictured below, students blogged about their 'Neighborhood Walk' which is part of the G1 Social Studies unit called, Our Community.

Learning about Lee Kuan Yew

First grade students in Ms. Analu's class recently learned about Singapore's first prime minister in their Social Studies unit.  They have created Puppet Pal shows to share their learning about this amazing person!  Here are a few samples to watch!

Our Community Posters in Pages

Ms. Goldhammer's Class used the app, Pages, to make a poster about the people in our school community.