We are proud to be part of the Second Grade community. We are excited to be here and ready to learn, share and have fun together. We wonder who ‘WE’ are as individuals. How are we the same? How are we different?
We began to collect some data about the people in our class. We began by organising ourselves by height. Who is the tallest in the class? Who is the shortest? This was quite a challenge as the children had to get themselves in line without using spoken language. They quickly began to use gestures to help each other get into place before the timer went off!!!
What about our names? Maybe we can organise our names in Alphabetical Order! Through trial and error we managed to come to an agreement about the order our names should be in. These discussions help the children justify their thinking and express their ideas with confidence.
Our next challenge was to create a portrait of ourselves. The children were introduced to the ‘atelier’ in the classroom. This is a space in the classroom that acts as a ‘workshop or studio’. This space is home to many different tools and materials that the children can use to design, create and express their ideas and learning using a variety of mediums.
The children quickly got to work, looking at themselves in mirrors and then creating their self-portraits.
What makes us unique?
Then, we gathered to brainstorm ideas for writing about ourselves. The brainstorm would guide our thinking and help us as we generate ideas for writing.
We used a rubric to talk about the different ways we can make our writing better. Adding more details to our pictures and sentences, being mindful of punctuation and using interesting words can improve our pieces of writing.
Here is a checklist we used to help us remember to check our punctuation, spacing and presentation.
The students wanted to collate their writing and create a book about themselves. When they have completed their books, they will be ready to present them to the class.