Community: Our Family Community

Assessment: We're half way through the unit and it's a good time to check in with the children regarding their understanding of what a community is.

The children drew pictures of themselves and included a thought bubble where I recorded their response to the question "What do you know about community?"

At the end of the unit the children's responses to the same question will be recorded and we'll compare the two, and discuss any changes in their thinking.

Another Community . . . Our Families!

The story Piggybook by Anthony Browne is about a family that leaves mom to do all the jobs around the house while Mr. Piggot and the boys sit around and make demands. "That's not fair!" was the consensus of the group. I asked the kids what jobs they did around the house to help their family and not many ideas came up but after watching this video the discussion was lively as they described their jobs. We'll explore this further!

Community: Making Connections

The children spent some time thinking about and discussing 

what roles people have in the community.

The plastic people helped to prompt their discussion and were useful as we told "What If" stories . . . 

What if the firefighter catches a bad cold, who would she see in the community?

What if the baker couldn't get to work because his car had a flat tire, who could he see?

What if the girl wanted to learn to read, who could she see in the community?

Making Connections:

What are the roles people have in the community and how do we help each other?

The children made an accordion book of people in the community identifying their role 

and who they're going to see and why. They had fun telling their stories!

Esme - This is my mom. She's going to see my dad because they're going to get married. This is my grandma, she's going to see the nurse because she is sick. The nurse is going to see my grandpa because the nurse doesn't know what to do with my grandma. He goes to see Papa, papa knows what to do!

Tyreese - This is the nurse, she's going to see the fireman because she has a fire. The fireman goes to see my mom because she has a fire. My mom goes to see my dad because he has a fire. My dad goes to the doctor because my doctor has a fire. The doctor sees another doctor because he has a fire too!

Oliver - This is a firefighter, he sees the tire man because he needs a new tire. This is a doctor, he calls the firefighter because there's a fire at the hospital. This is a mommy, she's going to see the doctor to get the baby out of her tummy.

Community: Police Officers

What do police officers do?

"They take care of neighbours and keep them safe." - Jayla

"If somebody steals something the police take them to jail.: - Tyreese

Byron had no ideas but after researching the question we learned that police officers 

help us if we're in trouble or lost and sometimes they direct traffic.

Jayla's question spurred on some discussion and 

has given us something further to explore:

"Who's more important (in the community)?"

The kids made a Police Officer Book and were very keen to do some writing themselves.

Community: The Tools We Use

Today connections were made between last weeks investigation into construction workers 

and the tools they use. The children were familiar with many of the tools we explored today 

although they were challenged to recall the names.

Knowing the names was important to them so
we played games to facilitate this learning.
In one game we laid out the tools on the table and the children took turns closing their eyes while one child took a tool away. The other had to guess what tool was missing. The second game the kids made a memory game and enjoyed themselves so much they played it twice!

We watched a puppet play called The Carpenters Tools, about a group of tools who aren't getting along because they each think they're the most important tool. After the carpenter comes and uses them all of them to build a chair they realize they all important parts to the building community.

Community: Building Houses

When asked what community helpers they're curious about 

Tyreese wanted to learn about people who fix houses and 

Oliver wanted to learn about people who build houses.

 

Using a web to organize our thinking I told a story of a person who wanted a house built.

They contacted a contractor who organizes all the people who build houses:

the excavator, cement layers, framers, roofers, electricians, 

plumbers, dry wallers, painters, carpenters, carpet layers and more!

The children were impressed "That's a lot of people!" 

Indeed, a lot of people working together, a community of workers!

A time lapse video showed the whole process from start to finish.

We went for a walk in the neighbourhood to look for construction workers building houses.

This construction site is at the beginning stages.

How did the excavator dig that big hole!

Community: Who Needs Garbage Collectors?

What places do garbage collectors collect garbage?

The children knew right away that people get their garbage collected at their homes and 

knew where the garbage cans had to go on garbage day and some even knew who's 

responsibility it was in their family.

Where else?

Through discussion the children brainstormed what other places need garbage collected.

The children wanted to know how often garbage collectors come and when they come to our school.

We studied the Collections Map and discovered that each area in Vancouver had it's own garbage day.

When do the garbage collectors come to our school? How can we find out?

Rylan thought maybe the police might know, Jayla thought maybe grownups in the school might know. During our brainstorming Rielle identified playgrounds as a place that needs garbage collected and everyone agreed they'd like to pick up garbage at our playground. After deciding what questions needed to be asked and who would ask them we headed over to the school's office.

 Jayla asked "What day do the garbage collectors come?"

Rielle asked "Can we pick up garbage at the playground?"

Rylan asked "Do you have garbage grabbers we can use?"

We learned that the garbage collectors come on Mondays and with some advanced notice we can borrow buckets and grabbers anytime we want!

With heaps of enthusiasm we headed to the playground to pick up garbage. Then to the dumpster to drop off the bag. Everyone wanted to peer inside and we noticed it was almost empty! Of course! Today is Monday and the garbage collectors must have come while we were in the forest this morning!

Community: Garbage Collectors

 Our unit is about understanding what community is and the roles people play in one.

"Maybe we could be a community!" offered Rielle

"Maybe we could make a community" added Oliver

It's clear that our clever children understand that a community consists of people doing work that helps one another, this was very evident in today's discussion and activity.

Yesterday during general play time child initiated action led the drama room to be transformed into a Fire Hall. The children eager to learn the work that firefighters do and what happens at the firehall and they've enthusiastically included this into their imaginative play. At group time today I asked the children what other community jobs are they curious about, what do they want to learn?

Firefighters - Rielle and Esme

Fixer guys - Rylan

Guys who fix houses - Tyreese

House builders - Oliver

The police - Sophie

To start us off I chose garbage collectors as it's an exciting event when they come to our school! 

What do you know already?

They pick up garbage (Rielle)

And put it in a truck (Tyreese)

Garbage goes in a can (Oliver)

They have grabber things to grab garbage (Rylan)

It goes to the garbage station (Tyreese)

There are garbage cans in our house (Sophie)

We need them or there'd be litter all around (Esme)

We watched two video's of garbage collectors, one from Vancouver and one from another city which prompted the children to ask "What colour are garbage trucks in other places?" Some debate over how often garbage gets picked up formed this question "How often does our garbage get picked up?" A third video showed mountains of garbage at the landfill, the children were intrigued, so much garbage!

Using shapes the children constructed a picture of a garbage truck. As we prepared I was struck by how all the children wanted a job to do in handing out the materials. While at this point it they haven't articulated their understanding I can see they have a sense that our group time "community" consists of people who work together, helping each other, to reach a common goal. Tyreese announced a reminder to get the glue on the shapes or they won't stick. Rylan helped Sophie when she struggled with the positioning of the shapes.

New Unit! Community

How We Organize Ourselves

Central Idea: 

The work people perform helps build community

Lines of Inquiry:

The jobs people do in owe community support it's development

We take on roles each day and this helps build a strong community (home/school)

The children are aware of many services in the community. 

To generate more ideas we played "What If"

What if you were hungry?

What if you were sick?

The discussion turned when Sophie said her dad goes on an airplane for a work trip. 

"What do your parents do at work?" 

The children know where they go during the day - school - and they know what they do there. They were less knowledgeable about what their parents do at work.

Tyreese - My mom goes to school and my dad goes to the office.

Byron - My dad's a surgeon and my mom doesn't work.

Jayla - My dad cleans up my toys and my mom cleans up my brothers toys.

Rylan and Rielle - Our dad works and our mom cleans up and just drives kids to school.

Sophie - My mom goes to her school and my dad goes to his school.

Research Survey

The children are collecting information. 

Please fill in the chart on the door telling us what kind of work you do