This unit was paired with our Money unit in math and our character traits unit in Language arts. Parents came in to talk about their businesses and how they got to where they are. We ended our unit with a market day. Students made homemade goods, they advertised them by making a poster and a video to first grade. First grade came in and shopped using the money (fake) they earned throughout the semester.

My second grade students LOVED this unit. We kicked the unit off with the QFT, and students did a gallery walk as they annotated the different invention posters. They shared their noticings and wonderings. You can see their “innovative” vocabulary sheets where their understandings of the term evolved throughout the lesson. We finished the unit with a biography presentation on an innovator of their choice!

The hexagon mapping was from the Colonial America unit, but still is relevant so it has stayed on the wall. Nothing beautiful or cohesive, but we really do use what is on the wall as a resource. The TIP chart for vocabulary has cards so that we can take them down and interact with them, the timeline has grown as the unit progressed and the inquiry questions from the launch are visible and referenced periodically.

Amazing student responses from Lesson 5 of the 5th module. Really great connection on opportunities and challenges and how they can take action!

My students are learning SO much! They are engaged and making connections to the content with real-life situations and content.

This work is after finishing up our module on California Regions.

We created this map of the school after we did a tour of the special places in our school and discussed the expectations/norms in each area. We had a blast!

Students had $20 to budget for a party using one of the lessons from the unit. I open up a store with little cards that they receive with the items they decide to purchase. Then they draw a picture and glue their items on it. Finally students write a paragraph that with a topic sentence, details and conclusion. Their paragraph should include things they chose to buy, something they would've liked to buy but couldn't afford and finally if they had any money left over. I then put these out in the hallway on our bulletin board for parents to see during parent conferences in the fall.

Students collaborated in groups of 4 to conduct research and find information to describe their region. The next step in this process was an oral presentation of each region. Each group condensed its section onto a notecard (per person) and delivered the content verbally while the remaining students took notes. They had to choose the most salient information and speak slowly and clearly so that the rest of the students could take notes. They put a lot of thought into which elements gave the best picture of their region.

We attend an IB school. We love inquiry. This is our community project. We wanted to help our community by solving the Lanternfly problem. We started with a questions. What we wonder and what we already knew. We read books and researched on the computer. We wrote the problem and reported our findings. We took action and killed them. We tally how much we killed in one week. We mapped where they are and where they are going. We presented our findings to guest visitors. We took feedback and reflected on our decision to kill them. We talked about other ways to help our community.

Our 3rd grade classes, during a Think-Pair-Share, generated a list of the physical and human characteristics of Nepal. Next, they wrote out “I See” statements on sticky notes and then added them to our inquiry wall on the Geography and Culture Anchor Chart. Then they examined the images of the countries from their Plane Ticket to find out more about the physical and human characteristics of those countries.

Anchor chart from the "Kids Take Action" lesson featuring our own Changemaker, Carmelo. He wasn’t inspired he was proud to share how he is already taking steps toward addressing an issue that impacts him by raising money for celiac research and one day a treatment or even a cure! He is the artist, leader, organizer, and Colette’s of his own brand because all of his profits are donated to his cause. Anchor chart featuring the class’s questions at the beginning of the lesson. Amazing questions like Why did they start slavery? How can kids take steps toward equality and justice? Why are people still racist and not treating people equally? Will we ever end racism? Can kids hold small marches to protest?