This Month in GATE!
January 2016
Relationships
Students will be working on the theme: Relationships- with the understanding that "Relationships exist in many forms." We will be looking at our impact on the environment, sustainability of resources, and relationships between organisms in various habitats and biomes.
PreK-Kindergarten
Students will be looking at the importance of animals within our environment and thinking about the essential question: "How can we take care of our environment to benefit ALL living creatures?" Communication and expressive thinking will be a large part of this unit.
Grades 1-2
Students will be looking closely at the human impact on our environment and how we affect the organisms surrounding us. They will be using divergent thinking to question "How do we impact our environment?" and "How does the relationship between a habitat and its ecosystem affect the life it supports?" We will focus on Supposition (What would happen if....?) and Point of View (How would a _________ feel or react to that?)
Grade 3-5
Students will be taking a deeper look at the biomes of the world and thinking about how we affect our environment but also thinking, "How does the relationship between humans, animals, and the environment help to sustain life?" Students will think about the social impact that not caring for the GLOBAL environment can (and will) affect us all. We will focus on Involvement (How would you feel if...? and What would you do if...?)
What are "Divergent Questions" ?
You may see this term quite a bit! Open-ended questions that force students to think in a deeper and more creative way are called 'divergent'. Examples of this line of questioning may include:
- List all of the relationships that you can think of
- Compare a relationship to a _______________________ (and explain the connection)
- What would the world be like if relationships did not exist?