Home-Discovering Edgecumbe

Learning outcomes

The Hook:

*Below are the key questions that our inquiry unit began with. The curriculum strands follow afterwards.

Our LOCAL WORLD / EDGECUMBE:

*What does 'Edgecumbe' mean to you?

*What makes 'Edgecumbe' a special place to live in?

Key Guiding Subsidiary Questions:

*How do I 'fit' in my classroom/school community/town community?

*What do I know about Edgecumbe (past and present), the town and the community?

*Who are our 'Local Heroes' and icons (the people who help in the community to benefit the community)?

As part of our study, our classroom briefly looked at 'natural disasters' that have impacted on the town in its past such as the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake and the 2009 (and other years) flooding that hit the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Curriculum areas:

L2 Social Sciences:

*Understand how places influence people and people influence places.

*Understand how time and change affect people's lives.

Visual Arts:

*Developing ideas and practical knowledge and applying these to producing a dyed or tie-dyed t-shirt with a class produced logo representing our community spirit and a family oriented print representing family/community and self.

*Developing a class produced logo board that represents our community spirit (what each person thought or felt was special about Edgecumbe).

*Developing a family oriented print representing their family, an aspect of the community (eg maunga, koru for a river, colours representing the school) and something that the child likes (eg sport activity, music appreciation, art).

Health and Physical Education:

Attitudes and values – a positive, responsible attitude on the part of students to their own well-being; respect, care, and concern for other people and the environment.

Vision:

Our School Vision is: 'Caring, responsible, life long learners'.

Our students learning to be confident and positive in their own identity, able to relate to others and connected to their community as active members of the community (schooling and town communities) and learning to become active contributors to their community.

Values:

Our School Value is: 'Whakaaro Pai ki te Tangata' - 'Caring for Others' - 'I CARE, We CARE'

(Caring - Achievement - Responsibility - Effort)

Students will be encouraged to value community and participationg for the common good, value caring for the environment and respecting themselves and others.

Key Competencies:

Students will use:

*Thinking - Make sense of information, experiences and ideas to further develop understanding about their community and why and how people strive to make decisions to make their community a better place.

*Relating to Others - Interacting with others in different range of contexts - sharing ideas and developing an understanding of other people's ideas and experiences.

*Participating and Contributing - developing and strengthening actively working with others and taking their place within our class/school/town communities.

Did these Learning Outcomes Match our Initial Learning Intentions?

For most of our inquiry unit, yes, I believe we achieved what our initial learning intentions had stated. We only briefly studied 'Natural Hazards' impacting on Edgecumbe and surrounding areas and I do not think we achieved fully what I wanted the children to learn (eg What can we do to prepare for a flood or earthquake?).

As a teacher, I enjoyed learning throughout most of this unit as the children were able to say why they felt Edgecumbe was a special place. Many of their families (Aunts, Uncles, Nans and Koros) had contributed in some small or big way to helping to make Edgecumbe a better place (eg community working bees) and the children could identify jobs that had been done and new things found around Edgecumbe.

Whaea Lesa :)

*Acknowledgements:

- The old photograph of the railway lines outside Edgecumbe is from the Riverslea Mall Information board,

- Other photographs on this page were taken by Whaea Lesa

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