Contributing to community and caring for the environment

Students were given time to pursue their own personal inquiry topic.  One student chose to investigate this issue of poverty.  She had a personal connection because her brother had visited Uganda with his baseball team.  She initiated a fundraising effort creating homemade crafts on her own time and selling them within the school.  She also made a video to document her journey of self-realization, comparing her life in Canada with life in developing countries.  She then participated in a poverty awareness and fundraising fair at our school fun night.

Students had an experience meeting people in the downtown eastside of Vancouver at The Door is Open.

A student is picking up garbage on the beach as part of a class beach clean-up activity.

In response to a question from the teacher, he explains the effects of garbage on the beach and his concerns for the ocean and the animals.

A student takes an opportunity to change a graduation tradition and help raise funds for people in need.

A young student decides to rescue trees and extends a class project.

During the course of the year, students in a grade 4/5 class chose a tree seedling to adopt. During the year, they investigated their trees needs and growth. They reflected to compare their trees ‘identity’ with their own identity and asked the following questions:

One student notices that another needs help and quickly and quietly provides assistance.

Students are writing down points made by a teacher as she talks about how to re-tell key events in a story. During the lesson, the teacher observed that when one child’s pencil broke, another student quickly shared her one pencil with the other student. They quietly passed the pencil back and forth between them as the lesson continues uninterrupted.

The student has demonstrated that she can identify a situation when others need support and provide it.

Children work in pairs to make, implement, and reflect on partner play plans for lunch recess.

Each child has been paired up with a ‘daily partner’ who changes each day. The daily partner strategy involved creating ‘daily partner plans’ that provided an opportunity to get to know classmates they did not typically choose to work or play with.