Where We Come From

Our unit began with the creation and discussion of globes, maps, and the fact that there are people alike and different from us all over the world.

I miss my Tomek-Eastern Elementary family terribly. Much of the courage I use to make sense of our crazy European adventure cones from the confidence I gained being a part of such an awesome group of teachers, parents, and kids. Almost as much as I miss all those terrific Tomek tigers, I miss being a part of an IB school. Working with my fellow first grade teachers to develop super interesting, authentic, and just all around cool IB curriculum was always a challenge that I could never get enough of.

So, when Rachael and I sat down to plan our 'Where We Come From" unit I put my IB foot forward. Together we created a month-long unit that focuses on each country students in our oldest class represent. Passports and suitcases in hand, we traveled to America, Canada, Israel, England, France, Turkey, and back to Germany. And boy, was it ever cute. 

Because many of our students are bi-cultural it was difficult for us to decide how to teach them where they came from. So, we turned to the parents and asked them decide. Some went with their own nationality, some said they cannot choose only one, and some chose where there child was born. The parents of my fellow Michigander are from Istanbul, but their son was raised in Northville (imagine that?!) and so they asked us to teach him that he is from America.

The Seedlings suitcases are now covered with 'symbol stamps' from each country. If it is the day we visit your country, you get to stamp the passport page and say, "Welcome to ...." Then, you get to glue the stamp of your country onto each suitcase. Here we have a Hamburg crest, Canadian maple leaf, and a London double decker bus.

These fun activities along with show 'n tells and heaps of books made for a fun, IB-like unit and I have loved every second of it. We have only one week left of the unit and the only thing I have left to do is figure out how to extend it.