Week 2: Where we are in place and time

This week in Year 5 we started working on the PYP theme "Where we are in place and time".  Our central idea is "the human desire to explore new land and cultures has always been present in the history of humanity".  To get students to read and discuss about explorers and explorations they completed a "jigsaw" activity.  Each table group was given the same article from the website www.newsela.com.  Newsela takes current articles from newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times and adjusts them so that kids can comprehend what they are reading.  After reading and discussing in groups they then went with their "color" groups.  In their color groups they each had different articles so that they could share what they learned with each other.  Here are some pictures from this activity!

Here are some of the articles we used!

Also, in conjunction with learning about human explorations, we are also learning about animal explorations.  The students began learning about the different aspects of ecosystems and biomes such as abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) factors.  Here they are completing an activity to determine which factor each picture is.