G2 Social Study: Raising Awareness about Food Waste

Sharing the Planet: Social Studies UOI Unit 5

Central Idea: We have a responsibility to maintain the Earth’s natural resources. Lines of Inquiry: problems with Earth’s natural resources, why we use and waste natural resources, reduce/reuse/recycle, our responsibility as stewards of Earth Key

Concepts: responsibility, causation, connection

For our fifth unit, our Grade 2 students are inquiring about problems for our environment and how to come up with solutions. For tuning in, they learned about natural resources (what are they, why are they important). For finding out and sorting out, they worked in groups, giving them an opportunity to learn research skills and practice self-management and social skills.

Though typically taking action comes at the final stage of the inquiry cycle (we are only mid-way through our unit), this time students had the opportunity to be leaders in a whole PYP challenge, with the aim of raising awareness about a current issue: food waste. Students first made posters and flyers, then went around to different classes to promote our challenge. Over a week, student

representatives from each class weighed and recorded the amount of food waste from their class.

Students were given the opportunity to put related math skills into practice, such as measuring in grams and kilograms, making bar graphs and interpreting data.

It was great to see that no matter losing or winning, the students usually encouraged each other to do the right thing and finish their food to help not only their class but their environment!