An Inquiry into Expressions and Culture

How do we express ourselves? What is expression?

The students began to share their ideas and we documented their thinking on chart paper.

“We express ourselves through, dance, music, games, drawing, painting…”

(Creative thinking: Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives)

We wondered what we ‘value’ as a community in Grade 2A. We documented our discussion on chart paper.

We discussed why teamwork, kind words, sharing, turn taking and group work was important to us. We agreed that this was the culture of our classroom or ‘how we did things’ as we worked and learned together.

(Creative thinking: Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives)

Three students shared photographs of different objects, experiences and artefacts that they valued (in their home/ as a family/ in their culture).   

(Communication Skills: Exchanging information-Listening, interpreting and speaking)

We reflected on the discussion we had about the different ways we express ourselves. The students began to think about the different aspects of expression they could learn more about. What tools can we use to conduct our research? How might we present our research?

(Information literacy: Formulating and planning, data gathering and recording, synthesizing and interpreting, evaluating and communicating)

The students agreed that they could conduct their research by:

• reading books and magazines
• interviewing people
• watching videos

We continue to wonder ‘how communities come together through expressions of culture‘.

The students were invited to look around their home and post photographs of the different expressions of culture. These could be artefacts, traditions and customs.