To share with others what they learnt in our second unit of the year, the first and second grade students created displays about things that have changed in children's lives and presented them to visitors to our Mini-Museum.
During English language time, the Grade 2 students have been learning about paragraph writing, and were tasked with writing an informational paragraph about how things have changed. Their paragraphs were expected to have a topic sentence, at least two details about how it was in the past, as well as two details about it now, as well as a concluding sentence.
Ryann explained how the soccer ball has changed.
Richard looked into how the toys, such as toy cars have evolved.
Brandon explained how the changes to something as functional as the heaters in the class has made a difference in children's lives.
Tiago noticed that boys and girls used to be separated but now get to learn together.
Hirohito explained how different generations of kids enjoy playing games, but that the types of games and the way that we play them has changed.
Aira explained how computers and the internet have changed the way students do research.
Aruto demonstrated how pencils and erasers have made writing easier to correct your mistakes than pen and ink.
Airen wrote about how toys today are made of plastic and often use batteries.
Riku wrote about the change from firelight to electrical light.
Over the past six weeks, the second grade students have been inquiring into how children's lives have changed over time. Throughout the course of the unit we focused on three main aspects of children's lives; life at home, at school and the games that they play.
Through stories, narratives of children from the past, as well as interviews with parents and grandparents, as well as a simulation of an "Old School" day, the students had the chance to see for themselves what school was like in the past.
As a Show and Tell activity, students brought in games or toys that their parents or grandparent had played with, as well as some of their own in order to contrast and compare, in order to see how toys have changed.
Students also did some research using topic related books about: Cooking and Eating, Homes Today and in the Past, Washing and Cleaning, Travel Then and Now, and Communication. Students then presented on those topics to the rest of the class.
For the end of the unit, each student chose one thing that has changed in the lives of children and created a mini-museum display and description about how it has changed. Together with students from Grade 1, we held the Mini-Museum in the Grade 2 classroom last Thursday and many classes came to check out our displays. Please look forward to more details about the Mini-Museum in the next post!
Riku wrote about the change from firelight to electrical light.
