Grade 1
Welcome to Grade 1!
On this page you can find information about our units of inquiry.
- UOI 1 Who we are
- UOI 2 Where we are in place and time
- UOI 4 Sharing the planet
- UOI 5 How we express ourselves
Contact:
Greca Durant
Unit of inquiry 1
Interdisciplinary theme
Who we are
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.
Central idea
People are alike and different.
Lines of inquiry
The nature of friendship.
The connections people have.
How to solve problems.
Key concepts
Connection
Reflection
Learner profile
Caring
Reflective
Communicator
Open-minded
During this unit the students read and listened to the friendship stories from ‘Frog and Toad.’ They wrote about the qualities they look for in friends and made a friendship garden pointing out these qualities in their classmates. The students learnt to solve conflicts using the peace table and acted in a role play about conflict resolution. The students contributed their ideas about how they can contribute to peace by making a peace tree. They also sang a song about peace during their assembly. If you at school, please take a look at the rainbow fish on the wall outside our classroom. Each scale on the rainbow fish represents one of the students’ ideas about friendship.
In maths the students worked on sequencing, using the calendar. They are developing their skip counting by 2s and 5s. They are learning to read a thermometer by monitoring the temperature both outside and inside the classroom. They are beginning to read the time by the hour.
The students in Mongolian A are learning the alphabet. Now they have mastered the first 12 letters and are practicing to read and write short words with those letters. While practicing, they are also focusing on long and short vowels in word structure. In order to develop their vocabulary, they have studied poems by T.Galsan and D.Natsagdorj and some proverbs.
In Mongolian B the students have been practicing numbers, family members and body parts. They are able to write their own names in Mongolian and are beginning to learn to write the rest of the alphabet.
As an integration to the unit ‘People are alike and different’ the students have completed their friendship quilt. They explored using felt by cutting out shapes to create a meaningful picture on the quilt pieces expressing their ideas and thoughts about friendship. Recently they have started on their design of their friendship pendants. By doing this work students will learn how to work with clay.
In PE (physical education) the students have been inquiring into strategies and skills needed for games and similarities between games. They are developing coordination skills, balance and spatial awareness through participating in simple lead-up games. The final assessment will include ball control and describing how to improve certain skills.
In music the students have been learning to listen to rhythms and echo them back to the teacher by clapping, walking and dancing. Listening skills are an important aspect in every class lesson. They have learned ten songs, focusing on the alphabet, personal hygiene, personal space and the world around them. They are also working on songs for the musical, ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
 Working out patterns in mathematics. |
 Learning about conflict resolution by using the peace table. |
Unit of inquiry 2
Interdisciplinary theme
Where we are in place and time
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
Central idea
We all have unique personal histories.
Lines of inquiry
Significant events in people’s lives.
Artefacts of our personal histories.
Key concepts
Reflection
Connection
Perspective
Learner profile attributes
Inquirers
Open-minded
Balanced
During this unit the children will investigate into their own family histories and the family tree.
Part of their assessment will be explaining the connections on their own family tree.
In Mathematics the students are working on shape and pattern. The children are focusing on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.
In art the students are working with the same shapes as in Mathematics. They are painting self-portrait made up of shapes, inspired by Picasso.
In language, the students are learning about adjectives, nouns and verbs. The children are improving their narrative writing by using adjectives. They are also starting to proof read, correct and edit work.
In PE the students are working on gymnastics and will develop their own sequence of movements.
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Parents came in to talk about their personal histories.
Unit of inquiry 4
Interdisciplinary theme
Sharing the planet
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
Central idea
People’s actions can have an affect on the extinction of living things.
Lines of inquiry
How we know about extinction
Why living things can become extinct
How our actions are connected to the extinction and survival of living things
Key concepts
Reflection
Causation
Responsibility
Learner profile attributes
Knowledgeable
Balanced
Thinkers
During this unit the children will investigate what a fossil is, how fossils are formed and what they tell us. Part of their assessment will be to research their questions and present their findings to the parents and students.
In mathematics the students are working word problems, more than/less than and place value.
The students in Mongolian A have almost mastered the 35 letters. They are improving their vocabulary and reading skills by reading poems such as ‘Paandai’, ‘Brother, Sister and Me’ and ‘The Method of Studying’. In spelling and grammar the students are currently practicing long and short vowels and learning how to use the suffixes ‘ы’ and ‘ий’.
In Mongolian B the students are learning how to name clothes in Mongolian. They are also practicing letters and sounds and trying to write words with simple sounds.
Unit of inquiry 5
Interdisciplinary theme
How we express ourselves
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
Central idea
Fairytales carry messages that can help you to learn about life.
Lines of inquiry
Experiencing different emotions
The use of arts to express and experience emotions
Appropriate ways of expressing our emotions
Key concepts
Form
Function
Reflective
Learner profile attributes
Inquirers
Open-minded
Balanced
During this unit the students read and listen to a variety of fairy tales and write their own. The children are learning to write in paragraphs and structure their story with a clear beginning, middle and end, in fairy tale form. They are focusing on character descriptions using adjectives and action verbs, and are beginning to use quotation and exclamation marks. The children are developing their sustained listening skills and are being exposed to different accents and voices when guest readers read to them.
Art is integrated in this unit when the children illustrate and publish their own fairy tale. With their 5th grade buddies the students design a 3D fairy tale scene.
In mathematics the students are using Venn diagrams to sort and classify different versions of fairy tales. They are also using a table to record differences and similarities in the fairy tales they read. For number practice, the children write and solve fairy tale word problems.