We started Term 2 with our second unit "Where We Are In Place and Time. In this unit, our Central Idea was "Journeys let us bring opportunities home." The lines of inquiry are as follows:
- Perspective - People call different places home.
- Causation - Choices and decisions involved in making a journey.
- Function - How we make journeys.
The learning goal for this unit is for students to develop an understanding of the world/geography and of the culture and realize that people speak different languages. Moreover, students will demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills and attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes.
We started off with some provocations. With parents' support and cooperation, students brought their travel photos to school and we used them to ignite students' curiosity. Transportation vehicles were also introduced. Students then shared and talked about their travel photos. We started raising questions such as: Where did you travel? How did you travel? What did you bring?
As we incorporate the unit with our Maths lessons, students learned and understand that common language can be used to describe position and direction, for example: inside, outside, above, below, next to, behind, in front of, up, and down. This term wasn't smooth sailing and we did online education. Most parts of our activities were done online. It was challenging for everyone but we managed to do it and we had fun.
As we go further, we started talking about places, countries, and continents and eventually discussed animals and houses around the world. Most of the students know where their friends are from and that they speak different languages other than Japanese.
Students were also able to make a connection between the region and the related vehicle they can use to go to the place such as plane is to go to other countries, a car/shinkansen is to go to other cities like Tokyo/Kyoto and a bicycle is to go to school/park.
Moreover, students and teachers were able to say "I love you" in different languages such as; "Saranghaeyo" in Korean
"Aishiteru" in Japanese
"Wo ai ni" in Chinese
"Je t'aime" in French
"Mahal kita" in Filipino
"Ti amo" in Italian
"Te amo" in Spanish
"Ich liebe dich" in German
We capped off our unit with a pretend-play as our summative assessment. Since we've been learning about animals around the world, countries, and continents, how to travel, and the things needed to bring when traveling, the students have decided to travel to Peru in South America where students pretended to buy tickets and show their passports to the immigration officer.
It was a fun activity where students get to experience how it's like to travel abroad from buying tickets and answering questions like "Where are you going?" and "Where is Peru?"
