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The work pictured here is from the Natural Resources Inquiry, Module 3, in response to the essential question "How can we use natural resources responsibly?" These are students' mini-posters from Lessons 4 and 5, which are displayed in the hallway outside their classroom.

My students investigated the various factors that comprise our cultural identity to have a better understanding of the topic. They also investigated how the connections we form and sustain influence our cultural identities and knowledge of others.

My students love this unit! There is so much depth and students get to learn multiple perspectives on how Oregon became a state. The Inquiry Wall is something we refer back to all unit long and students love to see their work on the wall.

This was a wonderful, student driven project. The class worked in groups to brainstorm places in several categories including: activities, shopping, restaurants, places to visit, and private lessons available. Students focused on 3 specific activities that had personal meaning to them and explained what the place was and why it was kid friendly. Then they chose other pictures of places from the general list for the middle photos and created a list of other things like schools, (mostly private, including preschools), places to shop, lessons, places to visit, etc. depending upon what was already included in their brochure. The class remained excited throughout the activity and they were all proud of their finished products.

We just completed our inquiry challenge statement and have created a wonderful mural featuring endangered animals.

We have been working on our changing landscape for a while, but we are just in the middle of Module 3! I try to put up some samples of their work as we go along, as well as other resources we pick up throughout our time. Our town is building a new pedestrian bridge, so I took some pictures of that - it's a great example of how our landscape is modified by humans. We also connected to our science unit and studied water erosion for quite a while and how that can change our landscape. The students noticed on the bridge picture how they are using straw to stop the erosion. The paragraphs on Food and Farming was a collaborative write that we did together - students partner read the book and picked out vocabulary from one section that was meaningful. We put it all together to write a multi-paragraph compare and contrast essay! I love building our inquiry walls and hope the students find all sorts of connections to their everyday lives.

I like to use a jigsaw method when it comes to creating class anchor charts. This way, the students have more ownership of the information, and they have a chance to be leaders and present the information that they learned. The anchor chart that you see was created by student small groups who reread the text to collect information on the differences between the regional colonies. We also rephrase the essential question into our own words which helps ESL students and all students in my classroom to promote better understanding.

We taught this unit in a 4/5 blend. Students worked in groups and were engaged. Each group focused on a different region and within the group each person created an artifact to represent a different area of the Native American group's life.

Please note that our inquiry wall covers Natural Resources, Our State and Region and Economic Choices (currently in process).

This is certainly a work in progress but here is our Wall for Past, Present, and Future.