This is the end result of our unit-long display. Students were so engaged with this project and excited each time we added something new. One time we were talking about communities in ELA, specifically landfills, and a student raised her hand to tell me that we needed to figure out how to deal with garbage in Blue Town. This sparked a deeper conversation and a new addition to our town. The student were using our display to make connections with our fictional town and real world. It was awesome!

Celebrating our different family traditions

Since this was our first inquiry product, and kindergarten, we kept is somewhat simple. I gave them a few ideas and they discussed at their table groups which one(s) they liked best. We narrowed it down to a few, then voted. Painting a picture won. Then we worked on building the Inquiry Product Statement from there. They did such a great job! After they finished their paintings, we shared them, then hung them up with the statement.

Student "docents" presented and answered questions for classes in our K-5 building who signed up to visit our "museum" in the LRC. It was on display for 2 weeks. They worked for quite a while planning what to put in their portion to inspire others to honor our heritage, then created a prototype, before their final displays were made.

These are first graders' awesome end of the unit projects! They had SO much fun teaching others about our special location, our Lakota community!

QFT on how we can bring families together to make our community stronger

Students really enjoyed working together to create something meaningful.

The students were insightful and open-minded during our unit. They learned all about global connections and how we can be global citizens. It has been an enlightening unit for the kids to see how connected we are to the people and places around the world. A student of mine is learning to read in Mandarin so he read a version of The Hungry Caterpillar, I read it in English, and our ESL teacher read it in Spanish. After we interviewed his mom who was pulled to America from Taiwan after falling in love many years ago. We learned so much! It was a great example of how globalization and cultural diffusion is alive and thriving. It was an incredible experience to have them see how everything we have been learning is a part of who we are as humans. We did a mural for our final product this time and they came up with the idea of a variety of people holding hands to show unity around the world. This is before it was hung up in the school.

QFT on using resources responsibly

During our Thirteen Colonies unit, students explored the question: How can facing the complexities of America's past help us to meet the challenges in the present? In module 3, we tried to find answers to this question by analyzing how cooperation and conflict affected the survival of a community. After learning the challenges and success of the Jamestown vs. Plymouth colony, students collected evidence to help them form a claim whether these settlements were stories of cooperation/conflict. Students exhibited their thoughts in the form of an infographic; they were required to have a claim, three pieces of evidence, and an image that illustrated their claim. Students were encouraged to design an infographic that would "pop", or be interesting to look at.

Students collected gloves to help families in their community through the cold winter.