Be The Change
Learning Sequence 1
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Introduction
During this Learning Sequence, students will begin to understand that everything in the world is interconnected and discover the importance of the relationship between nature and human beings, where the past, present, and future contributes to the world that we live in today, and how the world will look tomorrow.
Week one is the starting point where our students will get to know who they are and what matters to them. This is a very important moment, where they discover and understand that the interconnection between themselves and the people around them leads to success, especially when we want to create change in the wider community.
Over the next 10 weeks, we’re going to be working collectively as a class or a school, on a project which will change the way that our community thinks about the way they live and the choices they make.
During this week’s lesson, we will start to understand how nature works as a community. Always taking care of each of the components that make up the world that we live in. This week we are going to understand how we as human beings can work together to make a difference in the world today and tomorrow.
During this lesson, we will be thinking about who we are, what we want for the future and what matters to us? This week is all about finding connections.
Weekly Keywords
Introduce the spelling word list and choose from this list of tasks that can be repeated and expanded upon if necessary.
Copy the words into a spelling list/Vocabulary book for later reference.
Put each of the new words into a sentence and underline the new vocabulary in red pencil
Place the words in alphabetical order in a list.
Use a dictionary to define each of the words and place them into a vocabulary book.
Try to represent each of the words using a picture or a symbol and play the guessing game. (which image is matched to which word)
Write a paragraph containing all of the new vocabulary.
Make a vocabulary wall containing all of the new words.
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for the words and create a synonym list.
These words will help you during this week’s lesson. You may already know some of these words however practice makes perfect!
First, read the words and then try to define them as simply as possible.
An example has been completed for you. You can write these into your books, and draw a picture to match or simply complete the task card.
Watch and Discuss - ‘Weekly Warm-Up Activity'
Each week we will watch a video clip. or read a book together and answer a series of questions based on the knowledge the children have just gained. This will allow us to get our creative juices flowing and start to understand how we can use the information we have just gained to make a difference in the world.
. This week, as an introduction to ‘Be the Change,’ students will watch a video clip on how trees communicate within nature. They will then answer a series of questions based on the knowledge they have just gained and use this information to help them connect with the people around them and think about how their community is connected to the wider world.
This will enable our students to utilise their community and the connections beyond, once we start to engage with community outreach programmes in the coming weeks.
Watch the following clip on how trees communicate to take care of each other within a forest setting. Once you have listened carefully, answer the following questions with your partner, your group, or individually, and record your answers in your book.
If you’re not looking carefully, what might you miss in a forest?
What gas do trees inhale when they breathe?
Name five ways in which carbon dioxide is produced by humans?
Tell me three things about a mother tree.
How many organisms can a tree be home to?
How do trees get resources to each other under the ground?
In 1997, what did trees do that amazed everybody in the scientific world?
Why do leaves turn orange during autumn?
What is the meaning of deforestation?
When a plague of insects arrives to attack a forest, what do the trees do?
Who Are We? - Writing Your Autobiography
Over the next ten weeks, students will design a 28-page booklet on “The Art of Living,” using a provided workbook to ensure everything stays organised and properly formatted. It’s crucial that teachers emphasize the importance of keeping content within the safe zone (dotted line) to avoid any issues during printing. This project not only allows students to express creativity but also serves as a structured reflection of their learning journey. The final product will be a meaningful keepsake, potentially ordered as a printed booklet, so attention to detail is vital.
During this activity, we want you to think about who you are and what matters to you?
It’s very important during this activity that you represent your feelings and your thoughts as clearly as possible and with absolute honesty.
This week is all about making connections and finding similarities between you and the people in your classroom. Once this activity is complete, everyone’s biographies will be displayed on a collective display board and connections between people who have similarities and the way they think and feel, will be made to demonstrate that each and every one of us is connected, just like the trees in a forest.
Note – You may wish to use the example task completed by myself as an example.
The Wall of Connection - Creating a Display
During this activity, the students will gather together to list their autobiography task cards on one collective wall called the Wall of Connection.
Once all of the task cards are on the wall, the students will be given some string and a pair of scissors. They will then find similarities between their task card and other people’s task cards around the room and they will draw connections between the two, building a huge web of connections between all of the students in your class, and thus demonstrating that we are all very similar, although unique at the same time.
This understanding that we are all connected and similar in so many ways, will assist our students as you move forward through this programme over the next nine weeks.
Teachers are kindly requested to display the task cards on the wall throughout the entire 10 weeks, as this will reinforce our collaborative spirit and collective mission.
Now that we understand how important connection is when we attempt to work together, you are now required to come together as a class and display all of your task cards on one wall called the wall of connection.
Once all of the task cards are safely and securely placed on the wall, you will then be required to take some string and scissors and make connections between people in your class who have similar thoughts, similar dreams, similar fears and similar hopes for the future.
This demonstrates that even though each and every one of us is uniquely different, we are all very similar in many, many ways, and when we can find similarities and common ground between us, we can move forward collectively and change the world together.
Closing Video
This week we have learned all about how important it is that we take heed of what happens in nature because we as human beings are also part of the natural world.
The connections that nature demonstrates between plants, animals, insects and even human beings, can teach us valuable lessons about the way that we connect with each other. Especially when we attempt to work collectively towards one common goal of making this world a better place.
Next week we will start talking in more detail about how you are going to work as a team to make the world better for everyone!
Ongoing Follow-Up Activities
Extension Activity - Buddy Program
Children from year 3 upwards should be paired with a younger child in the school. Each week the buddy will be expected to visit the younger children and teach them based on what they have just learned. The children will receive a checklist each week to assist them with this system.
As Einstein said ‘To teach something is to learn it twice.’
Your job now is to follow the guide opposite and help children in the younger classes to plan, brainstorm, and prepare to write their own stories too.
You’re going to be a teacher and a leader.
Use the buddy checklist to help you remember what you have to teach to your buddy. Preparation is key!
Over the next ten weeks, we will be asking you to work with the same child each week to help them to write and publish their own picture book too.
Extension Activity #2: Send a letter around the world!!
In order for the children to understand how possible it is that they can contact anybody, in any location around the world, This week we will give the children a challenge to send a letter all the way around the world, visiting a minimum of seven countries
First, the students will write to somebody who is known to them in another country somewhere, possibly on another continent.Within the letter, they will be clear instructions that each time the letter has been received, a memento from that country must be placed inside the envelope and the envelope posted onwards. Once the envelope has visited seven countries, it must then be returned to the sender, which is a student within your school.
This exercise will demonstrate to our students that nobody is out of the realm of possibility when deciding who to contact regarding global initiatives such as the one we’re about to undertake right now.
This week your extension activity is in the shape of a global challenge. We want to challenge you to see if you can send a letter around the world in the next 9 weeks.
Your first objective is to find somebody that you know who lives in another country and send them a letter. In the body of that letter, you must tell them that they must send the letter on to another person in another country, and so on and so forth. You have nine weeks for your letter to visit seven countries and then arrive back at your school. To prove that your letter has visited seven countries, each person who receives the letter and passes it on must add something to the letter to represent each of the countries it has visited.
You’ll need a stamp and envelope and a very clear letter explaining exactly what needs to happen each and every time somebody receives the letter. You will also need a return address, which will be your school address.
Do you accept this challenge?
