Being a Hero and Making a Difference

April is all about being a hero here in Grade One. When I was a student teacher, the primary team I worked with created a wonderful unit all about being a hero and making a difference. It was such an engaging unit and it fit in so nicely with other curriculum areas that I wanted to give it another try.

Our big idea is: Everyone can be somebody’s hero

Here's what we know:

This is what we’re learning to do:

We began by learning all about Alexander Graham Bell. We learned how his invention of the telephone changed the lives of so many people. We learned a new word (determined) and proved that Bell was a determined person for so many reasons. How was he determined, you ask? Well take a look at what one of my kiddos was able to write:

I’m just so happy with how far they have come with their writing abilities! {Don't mind that it's not finished. We ran out of time!}

The heroes unit will tie in nicely with our new science unit on Structures and Materials. We will look at a variety of structures that have been built that have made a difference in people’s lives. Thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, communicating with each other is that much easier!

In math, we have started subtracting. There are many different ways to subtract, and I hope that they will explore the many ways on their own and use what works best for them; but to start them off, we really focused on the “taking away” and “counting back” strategies. By the end of the week, they were pros.

Now, back to being a hero.

On Wednesday it was Autism Awareness Day, and our autism community class put on a wonderful assembly to teach our school all about autism. I didn’t want my young ones going in and being confused, so I took some time to teach them myself about autism. Through some Googling, I came across this Arthur video called, “When Carl Met George”. It’s all about how George meets and befriends a boy with Aspergers Syndrome. Very kid-friendly and…come on…Arthur rocks!

{Click the picture to go to the YouTube video)

The puzzle piece is used to symbolize the complexity and mysterious nature of autism, so I had each student cut out a puzzle piece and write down how they can be a good friend to someone with autism. These little heroes can make a big difference in someone else’s life simply by being understanding and caring people.

Every year, I run Relay for Life and in the past few years, I’ve put a lot of effort into raising a lot of money for my team. Cancer is one of those horrible diseases that seems to have affected just about everyone to some degree. It’s touched my family a few times now and I want to do all that I can to raise awareness to those who need the support.

I was in the office of the Canadian Cancer Society the other day and I realized that the month of April is the month of their daffodil campaign! My students already know quite a bit about cancer since we discussed it in September before the Terry Fox run. We had another chat about it and talked about how the daffodil symbolizes hope and new beginnings. We made an art lesson out of it and using coffee filters, cupcake paper cups, and yellow paint, we made our very own daffodils. Once they’ve had time to dry over the weekend, I’ll mould them into the shape of a flower and tape them up all over the classroom. We may not have raised any money for the Canadian Cancer Society, but we’ve certainly raised more awareness among a very young group of children.

That’s all for now. I’m going to leave you with this picture that I received on Friday. It’s a little reminder about why I love what I do so much!

 See? Everyone can be somebody's hero!