The Things We Care About
During our investigation we have been inquiring into the world around us. We have discussed our connections with each other and to different places. To further enhance our inquiry we asked the children to bring in an artifact that represented something they cared about. The children did an amazing job of this and their interests covered a broad range of issues. Here are some photos from the day and some of the children's explanations of the artifacts they brought in.
Kai brought in a wooden turtle and a plastic bag and talked about how turtles can't tell the difference between a plastic bag and a jelly fish so they eat them and can become sick.
Abbey-Rose brought in an elephant and talked about her concerns about poaching.
Sebastian talked about the importance of using solar power to run cars instead of petrol.
Louiza brought in a some shells and explained that all the oceans are connected. When we pollute one place it can spread to others.
Veronica brought in pictures of orangutans and shared her concerns about the palm oil industry.
Taya brought in an elephant and talked about the importance creating safe paths for animals to move through the forest.
Kiki brought in cocoa beans to represent that some children have to work on farms when they are very young to pick the food we eat.
Tully brought in a rhinoceros toy and talked about the poaching that is happening in Africa.
Harper brought in a plastic bag because she had watched a video about how a whale had died because it had swallowed too many.
Fraser shared a stick of bamboo because it is easy to grow and is a sustainable material for building houses and making fabric. He explained it can grow very fast.
Horatio talked about a dolphin sculpture because it connects to his time in Bali and the wildlife there.
AJ talked about how plastic is made out of petrol and the impact this has on the environment.
Alex brought in a sports T-shirt to represent his passion for encouraging children to be more active and play sport rather that watching too much TV or playing video games.
Violet brought in a photograph of an endangered honey badger to represent how important it is to save their habitat from being destroyed by humans.
Ben brought in an iPhone to share because he thinks it is important to recycle phones.
Ethan spoke about endangered animals and showed us swap cards, books and posters.
Anya spoke about rhinoceros poaching and how hunters take their horns.
Lila focused on animal rights especially the greyhound racing industry.
Max brought in paper and talked about where it comes from and the importance of looking after trees.
Connor brought in a piece of bark and talked about the danger of habitat destruction.
Once all the children had shared their artifact in a small group we met together and try to classify the issues into sub-headings. The children chose four areas; human rights, animal rights, the environment and health. As the children placed their artifact down they were asked to explain why it fitted into that category.
We are really excited to continue to explore our issues and learn more about them.
Thank-you to all the families who assisted their children with this activity. We are extremely impressed by the depth of the children's knowledge and understanding.