As a whole Elementary School goal we are aiming to provide parents with more insight into the teaching and learning across different subject areas. As well as keeping you informed on recent events and classroom learning engagements through regular updates on grade-level blogs, we would like parents to access the curriculum learning outcomes for all areas. You can download these learning outcomes for Grade Two by clicking on the link below. Alternatively, you can download the learning outcomes from all grade levels from our website here.
As we began to tackle our new unit, the grade two girls tuned-in with a pre-assessment task. This activity directed their background knowledge and to began to challenge their understanding of what exactly is the form and function of a transportation system.
Working in their table groups, each group had several cards with various objects on them. The students were asked to decide if each card was part of transportation system or not. Some were quite obvious, but others were more difficult to discern. As they discussed in their groups, conversations developed about the nature of transportation systems. What is a transportation system? What is not? Some girls speculated a transportation system had wheels, others disagreed. Some said that transportation systems carried objects, while others stated that transportation systems are things that move.
If they were unsure of a card, they were encouraged to post their questions on the wonderwall.
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
What do people need to consider when using transportation systems?
How do transportation systems meet the needs of different communities?
Why do transportation systems change over time?
How are transportation systems around the world alike and different?
As a community embedded in the heart of Tokyo, a city with one of the largest metro systems in the world, this unit is particularly relevant in our second graders' lives.
Building on our background knowledge of the system in Japan, we have been unpacking how and why communities make efforts to create transportation systems that meet their needs(central idea).
After we have investigated features of transportation systems, we will be discussing the various factors that guide our decisions involved in using transportation systems.Throughout our unit we will be making global connections by comparing & contrasting our own systems to the those of other communities. Finally, we will further develop our understanding by inquiring how transportation systems respond to changing needs (lines of inquiry).
Grade 2 has launched their new unit under the transdisciplinary theme of 'How We Organise Ourselves.' We will focus on transportation and let the students' growing inquiries guide the unit. Students brought in items connected to the central idea like ticket stubs, plane tickets, travel diaries and models of different modes of transportation. We have added all of these items to our Inquiry Table.
Last week, students had their mother tongue books on display. The girls were excited to celebrate the many languages spoken in our class.
Grade Two has been busy telling stories in different ways.
In preparation for Carol Night students used ballet movements to tell the story of the Viennese Musical Clock. They worked in small groups to create clocklike movements.
Students wanted to tell an entire story, so we started to think about how people tell stories through dance. We read the story "A House For Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle.
Students explored creative dance elements. These included locomotor movements that go from one to place to another, and axiel movements that are performed in one spot. They explored "energy" elements that express the feeling of the movement, such as delicate/ powerful, unhurried/ quick, and tight/smooth. As they learned about the characters in the story, students used these dance elements to improvise dance movements.
Students formed "character groups" to decide how they might dance together. They used what they knew from ballet and other forms of dance to create their dance. Then we mapped out the stage, learning about the different parts of the stage.
We connected the dance to the rondo by Jean Philippe Rameau called Contre-danse from "Les Indes Galantes/ Air Pour Bouree Et La Rose." A rondo is a musical form with a recurring theme and various sections (ABACADAEAFA).
Students have been connecting ideas. Now students are at the stage where they added "color" and "sound" with scarves and instruments. Our next steps will be to add the remaining parts of the story.
Check out the videos we've made so far.
Now we'll be going further with our ideas to continue telling our story. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.
