Social Science-Canada Then and Now

Today in my quest to confirm the role of inquiry-based learning in Self-regulation, children are going to explore the Social Sciences Big Idea-How are their lives different from those of the children in the 1800s. They will explore the concept of Continuity and Change as part of the Curriculum. It explains this with reference to ways of life,  relationships with the environment or social values. 

The Question was posted on the anchor chart and walls. There was a brief timeline history in pictures on the wall. We started the process by asking what is the thing that you cannot live without in today's world? The answers were Ipad, video game, water, my mom, electricity, Money, Xbox, Minecraft...

Another question was "Explain what did you do in the morning before getting to school"  I got up had a shower and came to school. I urged them to break it down further. I turned on the tap for water. I have an alarm clock that wakes me up. For my butter and milk, I open the fridge. When children are encouraged to break down thoughts, irrespective of their language levels they are successful in communicating their thoughts. An inclusive environment which caters to different styles of learning is conducive to emotional regulation.

They were then asked how did they think Canada was before they were born or arrived here.
 I think the First Nations people were there. There were tepees. I think people did not have small cars like we have today. No, they didn't have cars then. I urged them "How about their schools and how they studied?" I know they had to go to school far away and some of them did not like it. 
Here children are connecting their previous knowledge which is about residential schools during the thinking process.

They were shown a painting by Elizabeth Simcoe of Toronto in those times and asked what they felt about it.
There is a lot of nature. Yes, there is a lot of trees. There is no place to walk, yes I don't see any roads. No, I mean like the pavement, like where we can walk, you cant walk on the roads. I don't see any roads.That looks like a tent.  Yes, I was about to say that, there are no houses like we have. 
Here the process helps them to extend and build upon shared knowledge. They are able to think abstractly by retaining previous knowledge and comparing it with newly presented information. The children feel safe and secure when they can freely express themselves this improves learning while helping them stay emotionally on keel.

Now they were shown a short video of the life of a pioneer child. We paused at times, as I asked them to comment on what they were seeing.

She is washing clothes, but she is using her hands. She is making bread with her hands. The school looks like ours, they have a lot of books. I asked them to explain it. We don't have so many books in the classroom, it's in the library.
She is wearing a hat inside the classroom. It was sunny outside, and she had to walk to school. That is like how S wears her headscarf. Children are presented with an opportunity to study other peoples culture and build empathy and respect. Here they are achieving their Health Curriculum objectives.

They were provided pictures of tools from those times like Jacobs ladder, candle snuff, matchbox, stereoscope etc and asked to guess what it could be used for. They could use the internet for research. 
Hands shot up, eyes lit up, they scrambled to guess and it was a pace which they set, I was supposed to guide and make my observations. The amazing results were other than for two of the ten items they guessed everything right. 
The candle snuff-That looks like it has a bell, yes but the handle is too long. The cornbread pan looks like the muffin tin. The kazoo-that looks like a whistle. A whistle was recreated with a rolled up piece of foil. Some of them wanted to create the most popular item was the cup and ball toy which they all felt was an item which is still fun to have. They are able to make similarities with their real life and compare it with olden times. The next step will be for them to make a representation and share it with the school in the form of a museum or the recreate a pioneer classroom.
























They were now asked to note down the questions they had about that period- I wonder if they had shopping malls? I wonder if they played with Pokemon cards? No, they didn't have pokemon they lived in very old times. OK then maybe they had cards like we play during math time. Did they have highways? These were recorded on the Wonder wall. 

They will continue this process find new questions and navigate their way through the investigation and come up with exciting results. I feel empowered and lucky to be with a great bunch like them.

Attributions

Jacobs Ladder-wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
Stereoscope-By User Davepape on en.wikipedia (Photo by Davepape) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons