First Grade: Understanding personal and cultural events of families in "Who We Are"

First Grade has been learning about personal and cultural events in their “Who We Are” unit. Throughout the unit of inquiry, students examined the personal and cultural events of families. Through comparison, students also explored customs and celebrations in each other’s families and families around the world.

Various learning experiences helped the students make connections to gain intercultural understanding and respect. Here are a few of the wonderful opportunities the students had the opportunity to engage in:

·         “Long ago, people found a way to light the darkness . . . Light was so important in their lives that they came to use it in worship and in celebrations” (from “Celebrations of Light” by Nancy Luenn).

o    Students had the opportunity to explore holidays that shared a common element . . . LIGHT!!! The students were able to select the holiday they wanted to inquire into (from a list). They then went to the teacher responsible for that holiday, learned more about it and then returned to their class to share their knowledge with their classmates.

Students who chose to go to Ms. Fitch’s class learned about the Japanese festival “Obon Matsuri.” This is a festival that honors the dead; each student created a lantern to honor a loved one, keeping in line with an Obon Matsuri tradition.

o    Students also had the opportunity to learn about traditions from community members. The volunteers who agreed to speak with the children shared how their culture has impacted the traditions that they have in their family, as well as challenges and/or positive ways their culture/ traditions have changed.

Volunteer speaker shares the traditions from her culture (Chile) with Frist Grade students.

Throughout the exploration of this unit of inquiry, the students were asked to consider what they were learning from multiple perspectives. This is a powerful tool for learning about other people and cultures; thus helping students gain an understanding that the importance of family and community beliefs, customs, language, and traditions are universal. Way to go First Grade!!!

Partnering with Community Members to Enhance Our Understanding of the World

Last week our 1st grade was fortunate to have guest speakers from our community; a firefighter, state trooper, lawyer & middle school principal connected to a unit of inquiry they are exploring under Sharing the Planet. Our school counselor, Mrs. Mutscher, also contributed to this unit with a counselor lesson.

The central idea is: “Citizens can work together to create a peaceful and organized community.” In this unit 1st grade investigates characteristics of good citizens before discussing how cooperation leads to a peaceful community, and resolving conflicts peacefully. This is an important unit for students, as it helps in the establishment of a collaborative classroom, illustrates different perspectives on cooperation and provides opportunities for the children to practice peaceful conflict resolution.  In their presentations, our community representatives talked about how they work with others to “keep the peace.”

One of the benefits of teaching and learning in the PYP is how it strives to provide students with a way to connect to their learning. It does this by making that learning relevant. By bringing in members of the community, 1^st grade teachers were able to support students as they made these connections. The opportunity to ask questions of the speakers allows our students to engage in meaningful conversation and deepen their knowledge of the concepts they are studying.