Here we have a photograph of our Grade 2 class having returned to school after the lock down has been lifted on schools. We do not normally see our students sit in rows like this but it is so good to see them back at school we don’t mind how they are sat!
They all look to be working hard but what have they been studying while they have been working online?
Students in Grade 2 have been learning what biographies are. We know that biographies are the stories of people’s lives and usually we read about famous people. But what about the people in our own family? They are more important to us so the students have been looking in their family history and finding inspiring and heroic stories of their own.
Here are the student’s Essential Questions:
- What is an inspiring person?
- What is my family history?
- How was my parents’ life similar and different from my own when they were my age?
- How was my grandparents’ life similar and different from my own when they were my age?
- How is life in a city different to life in a town or village?
The first thing the students learned to do was how to write interview questions that invite their family members to tell stories. They were then challenged to use this information to write a short story of their parents and grandparents and then to compare their stories to when they were the same age (7 or 8 years old).
After this the students were to create a time capsule of their family history to prepare for the next generation.
Some questions they found the answers to! What makes a person inspiring?
Kelsey Li’s decided she would a book about heroes to see what makes an inspiring person. Here is some of her work after reading about “Heroes on September 11”
Students then tried to find a word for every letter of the alphabet that described what a hero was.
Here we see Yvonne Chan’s list:
Well done Yvonne and Grade 2.
Student Voice & Choice
- Students chose biographies to read (given 6 choices of books, they chose 2 of interest to them).
- Students chose an inspiring and interesting person to research and write a basic biography about.
- Students wrote their own interview questions for their parents and grandparents to ask more about their lives during Grade 2.
Students chose to focus on a town, village, neighborhood, or city when brainstorming the different components of these communities (transportation, buildings, housing, food).
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- Leo is a man after many hearts who think that Messi is the greatest footballer who has ever lived. Here is his report:
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- David compared two people whose biographies he had read. Well done David, very interesting.
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- Jayden thought carefully about what he would ask his Grandmother and here we have his interview questions.
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- And Austin thought about some very interesting questions to ask his Grandfather. The answers must have been very interesting Austin.
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- Sean chose to write about his Grandmother. I agree that she must have been very kind to help so many people who were sick. She is a real hero Sean.
What great work and congratulations to our Grade 2 students and Miss Kara who has led this project. I hope you all remember these important heroes in each of your families.
Well done to you all!
