ISN Elementary Class is now investigating their final unit for the 2017/2018 school year and it has inspired us to debate exactly which pet is the best!
Our transdisciplinary theme is “Sharing the planet” and our central idea is “Living things share their habitat with other living things.” The word “habitat” was initially left out so students had the chance to discuss and list their ideas. The words “Earth”, “environment” and “habitat” were chosen as the 3 best ideas.
In our previous unit students had to think about people’s basic needs. In this unit we will investigate all “living things”. This week we began the first line of inquiry “Living things have basic needs”. Students chose a pet and then constructed an environment for that pet. In doing so they had to think about the pet’s basic needs. Students concluded that the basic needs for a pet are water, food and shelter. Some students described their pet’s home as “a nice living place for my pet”.
As part of their investigation, students drew diagrams of their favorite animal. They labeled the different parts of the animal as well as the height and the length of the adult animal. In further work students will also consider the animal’s weight, skills, speed, and the living space it might use in its lifetime.
In addition to starting a new unit Elementary Class has welcomed a new grade one student into our class, Akira Nakata. It is exciting to have him in our class sharing his ideas and participating in all the activities.
Today students were given the opportunity to take their computers home to try some activities related to our unit of inquiry that might be of interest to them. These involve using sketchpad, DKfindout, and easyblog. We look forward to reading their blogs and talking to them about their activities on Monday.
