The Grade 5 students at Prairie Waters Elementary School have been working diligently on a wide variety of interesting topics and this past week it was finally time to show off their hard work.
On Wednesday May 11th from 6-7:30pm, Grade 5 students held their Exhibition Showcase where they filled the classrooms and hallways of their school with their amazing projects. The central idea of the PYP Exhibition is that as people build relationships, they create stronger communities.
There were 29 student groups that participated and the number of interviews and expert connections made was 72. The students also had 29 mentors that helped with the their projects that consisted of staff of Prairie Waters, parents, Ambrose University Pre-Service Teachers and Field Advisors and Community and Business Members.
The PYP Exhibition has a number of key purposes: * for students to engage in an in-depth, collaborative inquiry * to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning * to provide students with an opportunity to explore multiple perspectives * for students to synthesize and apply their learning of previous years and to reflect upon their journey through the PYP * to provide an authentic process for assessing student understanding * to demonstrate how students can take action as a result of their learning * to unite students, teachers, parents, and other members of the school community in a collaborative experience that incorporates the essential elements of the PYP * to celebrate the transition of learners from primary to middle school education.
The PYP process incorporates five essential elements including Knowledge, Concepts, Trans disciplinary Skills, Attitudes and Actions.
The topics that these students discussed were everything from hot button social topics to keeping our environment clean and safe. One group took on the topic of gender categorization by discussing why toy manufacturers tend to show male children playing with cars and female children playing with dolls. These students had a chart at their exhibit that simply listed six different toys and asked students to put a check under the toy they would play with – girls were to place a check with one color marker and boys with another. Interestingly enough, most of the choices had a healthy mix of both boys and girls that would choose that toy.
Another group took a look at the power of negative and positive comments on our society. They created the ‘Positive Tree’ and asked those that came to see their project to write something positive down and put it on the tree.
One group took a look at the actual messages that fairy tales give to children and the possible unrealistic expectations that come from them. Another group addressed the sensitive topic of equality and bullying of members in the LGBTQ community stating that the ‘Bullying Stops Here’. While another group looked at the Block Watch program and it’s importance in our neighbourhoods.
Following the Exhibition Showcase, some of the participating students blogged about their experience:
“It was challenging when a lot of adults came to our stand” – KC
“It was challenging when adults came and asked us questions”. SHB
“It was challenging when people asked me lots of questions”. SKB
“It was challenging when we were asked a lot of really hard questions”. LS
“It was challenging when speaking to the audience”. 5T Student
Great work Grade 5’s!!
