Over the past two weeks, our student teacher Amanda (@amandasantos_ed & www.learningstem.ca) has been leading us in discussions about our access to water; our own personal and/or familial connections to water, how we use water at home and making predictions as to how our lives might change if we didn’t have access clean water. After looking at all of our Water Surveys (thanks for your participation at home!) we realized that we use 280 Litres of water EACH per day - that's one and a half of the large school recycling toters PER PERSON!! That's a lot ... 🤔 We then brought the conversation to WHO might not have access to clean water (ask your son or daughter about their predictions or inferences and be sure to discuss the "why?"). We were shocked to find out that there are people in our Country of Canada, in our Province of Ontario, that don’t have access to clean water (e.g., turning on a tap and being able to drink the water out of it). If you visit the website Water Today you'll see that all of the yellow dots represent communities in Canada (and can zoom in to Ontario) without clean water. We talked about what a boil water advisory is and even took a closeup Google Maps view on Hiawatha, a community that is less than 2 hours away from us in the Junction! As we 'walked' down the streets on Google Maps we saw that they have houses, streets, electricity, cars - it looks a lot like our community (urban vs rural), but - they don’t have clean water. We investigated how unclean water affects the lives in many First Nations communities and watched some edited video clips that Amanda put together. (Please watch again and continue the discussions at home). Clips from Vice Canada's Waterless Communities: Neskantaga and Human Rights Watch Canada's Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk were edited for Grade 1 & 2 audience. Afterwards, we took some time to reflect on what we saw in the video by taking part in a talking circle (a traditional tool used by indigenous peoples to solve problems; a place of comfort where you have freedom to let your emotions and thoughts flow). We tried to really think about what it means to not have access to clean water and how it feels knowing that many First Nations people in Ontario do not. The Talking Circle by Leah Marie Dorion She is an interdisciplinary Metis artist raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Here are a few of our reflections during the Talking Circle:
I think if of "sad", because all these people are getting affected because of their water. I don't want that to happen because it's not good for the people living in our world. I felt like if I went in the water and how I would get those rashes and things, it would feel really itchy to me if I got anything like that and that's probably how they feel, sad and scared if their water's like that. I feel sad because they can't drink their water. It would be hard but, we could donate and give them a water plant like we saw in the video, or why couldn't we just buy them Life Straws instead because they cost less money (than a water plant)? I feel thankful because we have clean water. If I was there I would feel anxious about it because I wouldn't have anything to drink that would be good. I feel scared because if I was going to go there and if I was really thirsty and I had to drink that water ... I feel sad because it's not fair that our community and most communities, we have this clean water. Why can't their community have clean water? After watching the video and sharing at the Talking Circle, many of us still had burning questions and thoughts to share, so we took time to write down what we were thinking on some Think Sheets. Please ask your son or daughter about their thinking! *We will continue this unit over the next coming weeks - please share your conversations with us via the comments section below or on Twitter @HPAS_Gr1and2 Curriculum Expectation(s) Grade 1 Science: Understanding Life Systems - Needs and Characteristics of Living Things Relating Science and Technology to Society and the Environment: 1.2 describe changes or problems that could result from the loss of some kinds of living things that are part of everyday life, taking different points of view into consideration Grade 2 Science: Understanding Life Systems - Growth and Changes in Animals Relating Science and Technology to Society and the Environment: 1.2 identify positive and negative impacts that different kinds of human activity have on animals and where they live Grade 2 Social Studies: People and Environments - Global Communities Application - Variations in Global Communities: B1.3 demonstrate and understanding of the importance of sustainability in people’s interrelationship with their natural environment and of some of the consequences of sustainable and/or non-sustainable actions
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
In our Room 108 Classroom Community, we foster an engaging, respectful and caring environment. I aim to balance a consistent program with flexible responsiveness to students' individual needs. Archives
November 2017
Categories |