Being a Good Student Back to School Inquiry Unit
Being a Good Student Back to School Inquiry Unit
Hey, y'all. Have you noticed your students needing a little extra support on being an active participant in their education? I know my students do.
To combat this in a productive and supportive way, we're going to be exploring what it means to be a good student through the inquiry process. This is a great unit to use during the back to school season as an introduction to inquiry-based learning and for setting expectations.
We start off by discussing what we already know about how to be a student. Students brainstorm their questions and think about their goals for the year. Questions could be, "What makes a student a 'good' student?" or, "How can I become a better student?
We define what we mean by being a "good" student. It's not just about compliance (although that certainly is helpful). It's about being attentive, focused, and kind. It's about caring for others, being a leader, and participating in your own education. Students know these things, but they also need it spelled out for them. Not all of them, but many.
We illustrate what being a good student looks like in different settings. Yes, that page says "At home." Students tend to think that their learning stops when they go home, but a good night's sleep, healthy eating habits, and getting exercise are all part of becoming a good student.
At the beginning of the year especially, we read a TON of books about what it means to be a good student as we're setting our expectations for the year. Comparing what the characters do to become better students to what we can do helps solidify these behaviors in students' minds.
Then, we take all these behaviors we've talked about and put them into our ideal learner profile. We talk about what qualities a good student should possess (and there are male and female versions included) and set our own goals for ourselves for the school year.
At the end of the unit, we reflect on what we've learned, what we want to accomplish, and how we need to behave in order to meet those goals. The best part is that these pages can be added to students' data binders in order to keep the expectations high and the behavior going in the right direction.
You can find this unit in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. I'm always adding new resources, so be sure to follow my store so you stay up to date.
Stay cozy,
Conservation and Earth Day Inquiry-Based Learning Unit
Conservation and Earth Day Inquiry-Based Learning Unit
Hey, y'all! This Earth Day, we're going to be doing a lot of work about what conservation and protecting the Earth really means. The kids reuse things in our classroom like scrap paper or milk cartons for crafts, but they don't really understand why we do that. This year, we're taking an inquiry approach to this unit and we're letting the kids lead part of our research.
We start off our inquiry units by asking questions to establish a focus in our learning. We might start with a round table discussion or graffiti wall about what we know about the topic. We might start with a QFT approach. Or we might do a read aloud about the topic and start generating questions from there.
Most of the time when we do an inquiry unit, the kids are pretty self-directed with learning. With this unit, we'll spend some time focusing on a few different areas of conservation in order to give students a broader understanding of all the things related to conservation.
We'll start where they're comfortable with the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. They've heard the terms before and have some schema on the topic. We'll read books about what it means to conserve and do the 3 R's, then we'll branch out into more ways we can take care of the Earth and why it's so important.
Some students may have some knowledge about what sustainability and "green" mean, but I like to go a little deeper so students have a firm understanding of the concepts and why they are important. We may spend an hour or so exploring different products we use that advertise being sustainable or using "green" technologies and how that affects us.
My students always start to panic when they realize that the trash and other pollutants in our environment affect different animals and their habitats. But it's something they need to be aware of. We usually spend at least a couple class periods exploring different habitats, the pollutants that are affecting them, and how we can help fix the problem.
If you're looking to get your students involved in some real-world advocacy, help your students find organizations that work to clean up the environment or plant trees and create a fundraising project for students to donate and support their efforts. Your students could also write letters to different government leaders in support of conservation efforts.
You can find this conservation inquiry unit for Earth Day or any time in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. I'm always adding new resources so be sure to follow my store for the latest updates and ideas.
I hope you found some new ideas for your next conservation unit. I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon!
Stay cozy,
Kindness Inquiry-Based Learning Mini Unit
Kindness Inquiry-Based Learning Mini Unit
Hey, y'all. In the fall, we learned about gratitude through inquiry-based learning. But I noticed, we also need to do a little more research on being kind to ourselves and each other.
I hear from teachers all the time who say their students are struggling with kindness as well. So, made a free kindness inquiry mini unit.
We've heard time and time again that when students construct their own knowledge, the learning "sticks" better. This is one of the big ideas with the inquiry-based learning model and student-centered learning.
So we're going to learn about being kind by getting students to define what kindness is and why it is important to be kind to our classmates, the adults in our lives, and ourselves.
We start off every inquiry and Phenomenon-based learning unit by asking some questions about the topic. These questions are student generated but can definitely be steered a certain way by you. If my students just aren't coming up with the big idea for the unit that they need to focus on, I will spell it out for them.
After we've got a firm understanding of what kindness is and how to recognize it, we look for examples of it picture books, chapter books, in our class, etc. We analyze how we feel when someone is showing us kindness and how we feel when we are kind to others. We learn about ways we can show kindness and why that is so important in our school and community. There are even ideas for extension activities!
It's a simple unit that can be part of your morning meeting for a week or two or integrated into your reading or social studies block. And, did I mention, it's free? Grab a copy for your class at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.
I hope you found some new ideas you can use in your classroom to help it run a little more smoothly. I'm always adding new resources so be sure to follow my store for the latest lessons and ideas.
Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon.
Stay cozy,
US States Research for Primary Grades
US States Research for Primary Grades
Hey, y'all! We've studied different countries for years before diversity nights and different cultural events, and we've studied the state we live in, but we haven't researched the rest of the states in our country. We've missed out on this learning opportunity, but that stops now!
Our students are from all over the US and they get excited to share about it. This research report helps students to organize their thinking and make a plan for presentations.
This little report has 11 pages of research pages and a cover sheet, but several pages can be used more than once if needed. You can find this research report in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. I'm always adding new resources so be sure to follow my store so you don't miss anything.
I hope you found this helpful. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon.
Stay cozy,
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