February 2013
Dear 2nd Grade Parents,
We are beginning our fourth unit of inquiry for the year, Where We Are in Place and Time. The central idea of this unit is: events in individual’s lives shape their personal histories. During the next six weeks, your child will inquire about their personal histories, histories of individuals (biographies), and IB attitudes and profile attributes demonstrated by historical figures.
Students will reflect on events from their lives and how they have shaped the person they’ve become. Also, they will reflect on the IB attitudes and profile attributes that they regularly demonstrate and those upon which they could improve. They will create a personal timeline and write about a particular event and its effect on their life.
Following the self-reflective work, students will work with their classmates to determine important events from lives of historical figures, the effects of such events on those people’s lives, the effect the historical figure has had on the world, as well as the IB attitudes and profile attributes demonstrated by those individuals. We will spend two weeks working as a whole group, researching and reading biographies. The final two weeks of the unit, students will read a biography and complete similar work independently.
During this unit, we will focus on the concepts of causation, connection, and reflective. Students will continue to develop and use their research and communication skills as they strive to demonstrate appreciation, empathy, respect, and tolerance as well as be open-minded and reflective.
If you have any helpful books at home, please consider sharing them with us. Thanks for all of your help and support!
Sincerely,
2nd Grade Teachers