Happy, Healthy Me!

I thought I would post some pictures of the student's work that is part of our first planner. As an IB school, we have Units of Inquiry that students allow students to learn through inquiry and action. The class is learning within the transdisciplinary theme of "Who We Are." In this unit, the students are making inquiries about how to be happy and healthy in their physical, mental, and social lives. We have learned about how to be a good friend, what a bully is and how to handle bullies. We are also learning about how their diet.exercise, and positive habits can make them feel healthy and happy. They have researched food groups in computer research class. Take a look at a little of their work!

We brainstormed ways to be a good friend and a bad friend. They had lots of stories to share about their friends!

Then we wrote a paragraph, "What Makes a Good Friend." Each paragraph has a topic sentence, 3 main ideas, 3 detail sentences, and a closing sentence. They did great! I am very pleased with their first attempt at an organized paragraph this year. This is the writing display.

We also sorted pictures into healthy and unhealthy habits. They worked in groups to discuss why each habit was healthy or unhealthy. Here is the poster of the results.

Then we research food groups and made posters in small groups. The posters were to have the following information: at least 6 foods from that group with labels (We are learning about non-fiction conventions!), tell how many servings, and what that types of food does to help the body. A big thanks to Mrs. Bilbo for getting books and teaching us how to take notes. Here are our posters!

Before we learned about food groups and nutrition, the students had to fill out a food log. Then they sorted our foods in the food groups (plus fats/sweets) and wrote a tally for each time they ate that food on one day. Then we totaled the amount and graphed our results. The class was very upset by their findings! They immediately made observations like, "The fats and sweets and the veggies need to be reversed. We shouldn't be eating as much meat. More grains- whole grains!" YAY!! They are making all sorts of connections.

Today I passed out another food log with a tally chart of the food groups. I was so pleased when Gavin started rallying his table, "Come on everyone! Let's do better this time!" We will chart our new graph next week from our results on the second food log. I hope their results show the ACTION they are taking with becoming healthy!

While this is not all that we have done, it give a good overview of what we are doing in our class as part of an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Year Programme. It is wonderful to see the students internalizing what they have learned. I have heard from so many parents and grandparents that students are asking what food group their meals fall into. They are trying to eat healthier, I hope! They are logging their exercise and seeing it's influence in their lives. This is IB in ACTION and I love it!!

If you are a parent of one of my students reading this blog, please let me know what your child is telling you about our inquiry unit. I would love to have your stories here so I can see what is working and what isn't. If you are a teacher, what fun ways do you have to make nutrition come alive for your class? If you are teaching in an IB school, I would love your input on what you see with our planner! I am always striving to make the units stronger!

Have a wonderful weekend!