Families Around the World

As a part of being an International Baccalaureate candidate school, we've had to take on certain expectations. One of which being teaching 6 units throughout the year based on the 6 themes as designated by the IB. The themes are Who We Are, Where We Are in Place and Time, How We Express Ourselves, How the World Works, How We Organize Ourselves, and Sharing the Planet. So far this year we've taught How We Express Ourselves, a unit based on understanding how ideas and feelings can be expressed, How the World Works, a unit based on understanding how the natural laws help us explore the environment around us, and we are currently in Who We Are, a unit based on families around the world.

We began the unit with our provocation into family roles and responsibilities. We asked our students to illustrate a picture of their families and to label their responsibilities. Our provocation was perfect because many students didn't quite understand what responsibilities were, but they knew it had something to do with our unit. We then moved on to unpacking our central idea. Our central idea is used to guide our student's understanding to a universal concept. It begins in "teacher talk" but we work with our students to (as a student has labeled it) "uncomplicated it".

Central Idea: Human relationships are different in cultures.

After we unpack our central idea, we look over our lines of inquiry that guide our learning throughout the unit.

1. Structure of a family
2. Family Responsibilities 
3. Traditions, customs, and beliefs are different in families around the world

Throughout our unit of study, we touch on each line of inquiry based on the countries the students chose prior to the unit. I had my class vote on a list of countries and the 3 countries with the most votes were the countries we were going to study for holidays around the world and for our study on families around the world. In December, we primarily focused on the holiday traditions in the countries they chose: France, Netherlands, and Greenland. I highly recommend the Holidays Around the World Bundle by Rachel Smith (Go visit her blog!). This bundle has a lot of resources to choose from and was very useful for this part of our inquiry. My students made many connections to the countries traditions and gained appreciation for their differences.

We've now moved on to the families around the world portion of our unit. My students chose Australia, Kenya, and China. We begin each country by watching a DVD on the families in that country. You can find those HERE. (I'm not getting paid to advocate for these DVDs. Just a suggestion if you are doing something similar. They are great DVDs). Our 1st graders do learn how to take notes while watching the video! We split their paper in two columns: family roles and family responsibilities. By now, our students have an understanding of what these mean. As we watch the first video, Families in the USA, we pause the video throughout the movie to allow the students to write. By the 2nd or 3rd movie, the students have gotten the hang of taking notes while watching. After the movie, the students work in research groups and collaborate to document their learning of the roles and responsibilities from that country.

Throughout the rest of the week, we will research the culture of the country by using the Communities Around the World Bundle from Natalie (Visit her BLOG!). This pack is one I've used since I began teaching. I love this pack for teaching my Social Studies requirements. :) It fit for 2nd grade and I've made it work for 1st grade too! 

                 

New Year's Resolutions

I hope everyone has had a refreshing winter break! I know I've been MIA since the beginning of the school year, but I wasn't as ready as I thought I was for the school year and honestly didn't make the time for blogging as I hoped I would. However, I've decided to make a resolution that I truly think I will stick with!

I welcomed my class back with joy and energy as my break was very rejuvenating :) I was able to make it to Disneyland after 14 years and had a blast! Here are just some of my favorite photos from my 5 day trip...

My sister is quite the photo bomber :)

I was determined to find Mickey today as I had birthday cards to deliver from my 1st Graders

Mission Accomplished!! He was so thankful for his birthday cards :) It was such a great moment.

My last character photo of my trip had to be my favorites! I literally ran out of the park to get back to the hotel to check out in time to make it to the airport. :)

Teacher Chosen Agreements

The first day back in the classroom consisted of a lot of review of classroom expectations and routines. I always recommend in taking the time to do so to help your classroom management. It's not always the miracle worker, but it definitely helps enough to make it through the day!
At the beginning of the year, we created our classroom agreements to make our classroom the "happiest place on earth" and signed them as a class. As a part of our New Year's Resolution, we created new classroom agreements. I use my "teacher chosen" agreements (Whole Brain Teaching Rules--I made a few typos and am working on fixing the mistakes) and then have the students decide what actions they will do in the classroom to make our room the "happiest place on earth". I make sure we word them in "I can" statements rather than "No fighting" and so on--this creates a more positive atmosphere and I like to think the students are less likely to do something they're not allowed to do--this is positive thinking but I am fully aware of the reality HAHA!


After lunch, we began our first writing assignment of the New Year. I am in LOVE with Reagan Tunstall's Writing Mini-Lessons Bundle! It is a growing bundle, and my goodness it's like Christmas every time the next month is added :) I have used some lessons as I've picked out a couple of lessons here and there and the students have done very well with and enjoy them.

One of the January resources we used was the "Popping into a New Year" writing activity. Because we are an IB Candidate School, we chose to make the resolutions centered around the Learner Profile. The students were to choose a learner profile and then decide 3 ways they were going to demonstrate that word. As a part of the mini-lesson, I shared my resolution with my students which was "The New Year, I will work on being balanced. I will work on this by eating healthy, exercising every day, and making more time for family and friends". We continued as a class giving examples of the other learner profiles before breaking off individually to do their writing. I am really proud of the words they chose and they came up with great ideas of how to demonstrate their learner profile! If you haven't gotten this pack yet, I highly recommend it!

And the final product....*DRUMROLL*

  

We've had a good start to our New Year! I'm excited for what's coming this month--we will begin our research on Penguins, we will continue our unit on Families Around the World, and we will have our authorization visit from IB to make our school and all of our hard work official!

As another part of my New Years Resolution, I'm going to work on getting a blog post up as often as I can! My goal is at least 3 posts a month until I get the hang of this more :) Thanks for sticking with me in this journey! Make sure you follow my blog for updates!