News

A Sunshine Note: What's Up in Grade 6 Social Studies

February 10th, 2021

by Jenni Desilvestre

The past few weeks, grade 6 Social Studies has come to class ready to learn, and they have been doing an amazing job! Let's take a peek at what they have been up to. Hopefully, it spreads a little extra sunshine during this snowy, chilly week. 

Last Tuesday, we had a thoughtful conversation about the events in the Capitol, and we talked about community helpers, and how we can always look for the helpers who tell the Hidden Stories (Thank you for the materials Bruce and Anna, and for all of their work on this). Collaboratively, the students created a letter to send to the helpers. They recognized that their message of thanks was an act of response to the meaningful work of these unsung heroes. 

As the week went on, we began to explore Europe and all the excitement that a new continent may entail. We looked at a map of Europe and matched the flags to the countries. The students then used this 'pop up' model to talk about directionally. For example, a student would look at the map, pick two countries and say "Norway is north of Germany" or "Germany is west of Poland". This was a great way to practice identifying cardinal directions, making word/symbol correspondences with the flags and countries, placing our thoughts on a map, and just getting a little tactile kinesthetic feedback into our new unit! See below for some pictures from the activity. 

The students have all been shining stars this year. They have embraced change, adapted to different styles of learning, have taken on more responsibilities for their work, and have faced a number of challenges coming from all sorts of different places in their lives. The students are some of the unsung heroes, and I am so excited to be a part of helping them grow and do what they do best, make every day a little brighter!           

Thank you for your time and for taking a quick peek into Period 2 Social Studies with my grade 6 friends!