Term 1

WHO WE ARE

Inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; person, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.

In this unit, teachers and students  will begin to establish the rights and responsibilities within their classroom and the school community.  There will be shared texts and conversations about what individuals and the collective group needs in order to best engage with each other.  Learning communities will make use of the learner profile to learn more about themselves and each other and establish structures that best match what the collective group needs in order to function best. Overall, students will explore what it looks like to responsible mathematicians, scientists, readers and writers.  Students will then parallel the classroom experience with establishing rights and responsibilities with the experience of the colonists during the American Revolution and their desire to establish rights and responsibilities that reflected their beliefs. Learners will be asked to explore what beliefs the colonists wanted to uphold, how these beliefs led to actions, and ultimately what rights and responsibilities the colonists wanted to establish.  At the center of the learning should be uncovering what beliefs are present through examining rights and responsibilities, either established or in the process of establishing.  Learners will gain experience uncovering beliefs by practicing this through teacher read alouds of short picture books and discussion about characters and how we understand their beliefs through how the character interacts with others, behaves and shares thoughts.  Finally, learners will be expected to write responses, reflections, questions and short summaries throughout the learning process.  The focus will be to ensure that all written work is structured in complete thoughts with appropriate capitalization and punctuation.