Cross Curricular Expections

 

JK/SK

 

 

We view Kindergarten as a play based learning program which translates into students directing their own learning.  The materials are laid out for students and they engage in inquiry based learning.  The teacher is the facilitator to learning.

 

 

 

The Arts: Music

 

Demonstrate an awareness of personal interests and a sense of accomplishment in music.

 

Explore different elements (e.g., beat, sound quality, speed, volume) of music.

 

RGP!: (e.g., sing along, call and response singing and echo singing. Students experience hands on pitched and un-pitched percussion opportunites such as: body percussion, a variety of hand shakers, boomwhackers, thunder drums and rainsticks. They also must freeze and unfreeze when they hear the sound of tibetan bells. They get to tell a story through dance and sing a short refrain into a microphone. 

 

Part 2: Thinking about learning and teachong in the four frames 

 

2.1 Thinking about belonging and contributing

 

Supporting Children's sense of belongingness and contributing through collaboration, empathy and inclusiveness.  

 

RGP!: The Character Earth Angel appoints her feelings to personify empathy and help heal those around her. The children learn that working together in saving the environment will end the drought and save the garden. 

 

Language: Oral Communication

 

Explore sounds, rhythms, and language structures with guidance and on their own

 

Demonstrate awareness that words can rhyme, can begin or end with the same sound, and are composed of phonemes that can be manipulated to create new words (e.g., rhyming)  

 

RGP!: Making up a rhyme for a new friend's name so that its easier to remember their name.

 

Science & Technology: Exploration and Experimentation 

 

Describe and/or represent, using their own observations, patterns and cycles in the natural world

 

RGP!:  (e.g., life cycle of a butterfly, water cycle)

  

Participate in environmentally friendly activities in the classroom and the school yard. 

 

RGP!: Repurpose a plastic water bottle into a musical shaker (Mixed Message in a Bottle) 

 

 

Health and Physical Activity: Health and Well-Being

 

Begin to demonstrate an understanding of the effects of healthy, active living (e.g., having daily exercise, adequate sleep, proper hydration) on the mind and body.  

 

RGP!: A drought makes the creatures in the garden unwell.

 

Investigate the benefits of nutritious foods (e.g., nutritious snacks, healthy meals, foods from various cultures) and explore ways of ensuring healthy eating.

 

RGP!: Eat your fruits and veggies. Eat before you sleep so you dont wake up hungry.  Drink lots of water and stay hydrated. 

 

Identify substances that are harmful to the body

 

RGP!:  (e.g., smog, soot,)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grade 1 

 

 

 

Language: Oral Communication  

 

1.8 Begin to identify, with support and direction, who is speaking in an oral text and the point of view expressed by the speaker (e.g., the narrator may be a character in a story or an expert on the topic of an informational talk; the speaker may be recounting a personal anecdote or sharing a personal opinion)

Teacher prompts: “Who is telling this story/presenting this information? What words/clues helped you figure that out?” “What do we know about the speaker?” “How might the story be different if another character were telling it?”

 

RGP!: The Rock's voice is  heard as a narrator at the beginning and end of the play. But during the play, he talks directly to the characters.  

 

Social Studies: Our changing roles and responsibilties. 

 

 

A1.1 Describe how and why a person’s roles, relationships, and responsibilities may change in different places or situations and at different times (e.g., how and why a student’s relationship with a teacher is different from that with a peer; how their parents’ roles differ at home and at work; how a child’s responsibilities at home may change as he or she gets older; why expectations for table manners may be different when they are home than when they are a guest in someone else’s home)

 

RGP!: Skaterdude becomes more responsible when he leaves the city and discovers the garden

Although Earth Angel is just born, she helps heal the Grom who seem needy to her.

 

People and Environments

 

B1.3 Create a plan that outlines some specific ways in which they can responsibly interact with the built and/or natural environment in the local community (e.g., map out the location
of garbage and recycling cans in parks so they can properly dispose of their waste; help plan a garden at home, composting in the school, or other ways of reducing their environmental footprint; plan ways to participate in clean-up days), and describe how their actions might enhance the features of the local environment.

  

RGP!: Repurpose a plastic water bottle into a shaker and chant over the beat.

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS

 

By the end of Grade 1, students will:

 

1.1 Identify personal action that they themselves can take to help maintain a healthy environment for living things, including humans (e.g., walk to school instead of being driven in the car; be careful what they put down the drain at home; practise cleanliness to reduce the spread of germs when helping in the kitchen; show care and concern for all living things) 

 

RGP!: Appreciate nature by playing garden games and experiencing outdoor activities. 

Connecting with nature by listening to the sounds of natures songs, ie birds singing, rainstorms, the wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grade 2 

 

 

 

Language: Non-Verbal Cues

 

2.6 Identify some non-verbal cues, including facial expression, gestures, and eye contact, and use them in oral communications, appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences, to help convey their meaning.

 

RGP!  Earth Angels uses her face and body to communicate a warm friendly connection with Skatedude and the Groms

(audience members) 

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS

 

B1.3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of sustainability in people’s interrelationship with their natural environment and of some of the consequences of sustainable and/or non-sustainable actions (e.g., if people in dry regions do not use their water carefully, they may run out; if people do not use sustainable farming techniques, they may exhaust the fertility of the soil; responsible use of resources helps ensure that they will be available for future generations)

Sample questions: “What might happen if people use too much water?” “What can happen when people cut down all the trees for farmland?”

 

RGP!: If we burn too much carbon, it could have a negative effect on the weather ie It could cause a drought or a flood. 

 

Health and Physical Education: Movement Strategies

 

B2. Demonstrate an understanding that different physical activities have different components (e.g., movement skills, basic rules and boundaries, conventions of fair play and etiquette), and apply this understanding as they participate in and explore a variety of individual and small-group activities [IS]
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grade 3 

 

 

 

Language: Specific Expectations

 

By the end of Grade 3, students will:

 

Purpose

 

1.1 Identify purposes for listening in a variety of situations, formal and informal, and set personal goals related to listening tasks (e.g., to explore ideas in a book club discussion; to understand and empathize with a favourite character in a play; to express an opinion or offer advice to a partner during a peer conference. 

 

RGP!: Students are encouraged to discuss and comment on which characters they like and why. (Earth Angel, SkaterDude, the Rock and the Groms) They can also form opinions on how the characters grow and change in the play. What did they like and what did they learn from the story.  e.g. Earth Angel learns how to act on her empathetic feelings and SkaterDude learns that he would rather surf in natural waters, rather than skateboard in a polluted city environment. 

 

Technology:

Understand that sounds come from specific locations  ie the voice of the rock comes from a speaker beneath the rock where as ambient natural sounds come from stereo speakers mounted on each side of the stage.  

Hand percussion can make the sounds of nature e.g. thunder drums and rains sticks 

 

Demonstrating Understanding 

 

1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in a variety of oral texts by identifying important information or ideas and some supporting details (e.g., paraphrase a partner’s reflections after a think-pair-share activ- ity; paraphrase the important ideas in a play; engage in relevant dialogue after an oral presentation; create a poster/art work representing the important ideas in a poem or song) 

 

RGP!: How much damage are we causing to our environment and what are the short and long term effects going to be? Are our solutions focussed on the smal picture (ie cleaning up our streets) or are we thinking long term e.g., reducing carbon footprints, voting for green politicians, changing from fossil fuels to renewable resouces (ie solar, wind and water power).  

 

Social Sciences 

 

B2.5 Evaluate evidence and draw conclusions about some of the short and long-term effects on the environment of different types of land use in municipal regions of Ontario and about key measures to reduce the negative impact of that use 

 

B2.6 Communicate the results of their inquiries, using appropriate vocabulary (e.g., municipality, county, reserve, population, pollution, deforestation, rehabilitation, public transportation, ecological footprint, natural resources, traditional ecological knowledge [TEK]) and formats (e.g., a plan of action to address a local land-use issue; a cooperatively produced book of photos showing the environmental impact of a mine; a report on the benefits of forestry in provincial parks; song lyrics, a rap, or a poem about the effects of industrial pollution on a local waterway; an informational poster on what individuals can do to reduce their ecological footprint) 

 

RGP!:  Learners see the effects of a drought caused by man's negative attitude towards nature. Creatures suffer from illness and plants begin to fade and wither. Students can develop a plan of action. e.g., Spend money on green, products, plant seeds, use music and the arts to spread a message, repurpose plastic garbage into an instrument. 

 

Science and Technology 

 

1.1 Assess ways in which plants are important to humans and other living things, taking different points of view into consideration (e.g., the point of view of home builders, gardeners, nursery owners, vegetarians), and suggest ways in which humans can protect plants.

 

1.2 Assess the impact of different human activities on plants, and list personal actions they can engage in to minimize harmful effects and enhance good effects.

 

RGP!: Trees turn carbon dioxide in to oxygen we can breathe. Plants are food that we can eat to sustain our well being. Some cultures belive that rocks, animals and plants have voices and feelings that need to be respected. In this story, plants even make great musical instruments e.g., garden bamboo. Musical instruments (guitar and keyboard)  grow out of the ground  like plants, and Earth Angel is born with a musical instrument in her hands. Perhaps if we see plants more like we see ourselves, or see their unlimited potential, we will act differently towards them. ​