Overview

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This interdisciplinary unit plan will help students develop their understanding of how to become responsible people, which is the overall all theme of Grade 6.  This unit will begin with students learning about Indigenous Ways of Knowing, relating to the Medicine Wheel, emphasizing individual values, thoughts and actions. This theme will help students connect to the four realms: Mental, Spiritual, Emotional and Physical.  Topic E of Science 6, Trees and Forests, will be explored within this unit. The authentic land based experience of a nature walk will teach students about trees and forests as living things. Through poetry students will explore their emotional and spiritual relationships with trees and forests. The week will culminate with a reflection on the Medicine Wheel and an artistic display of their poetry artefacts.

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Essential Question 

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How can we take responsibility for ourselves and our relationship with nature? 

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Day 1

• Introduce students to the Medicine Wheel as an Indigenous Way of Knowing how to see ourselves within our environment.

  • Students will watch a video on the Medicine Wheel and how it relates to their personal interactions with the environment. 

  • Students will be given a Medicine Wheel handout and discuss, with their elbow partner, how they show their responsibility for their own values, thoughts and actions on environmental issues. 

• Nature walk to introduce personal observation of trees​ and collection of materials for Day 2

  • KWL (Know, Want to Know, Hope to Learn) about trees and forests prior to nature walk.

  • Students will also be encouraged on their nature walk to be present; by being quiet , taking deep breaths, and to take notice of parts of nature that they have not noticed before, both small and large to prepare for Day 2 Medicine Wheel activity.   ​

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Day 2

• Students will learn to identify four types of trees (2 coniferous/2 deciduous) in their local environment, using the materials collected on Day 1.​

  • Concentration on identifying markers such as leaf shape, arrangement and branching patterns.

  • Learning activity booklet will be given out and started.

  • Students will pick one seed of one tree to plant in a pot and continue to care for it the remainder of the year.

• Students will begin to unpack the Medicine Wheel, focusing on the East and West quadrants​. Reflecting on how they felt both emotionally and physically during the nature walk.

  • Students will fill in East and West quadrants on Medicine Wheel handout.​

• How does poetry help people to express their experience of nature as human beings?

  • Students will be introduced to the basic elements of poetry and what poetry is.

  • Teacher will read and hand out a poem about trees with a set of questions to be answered.​

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Day 3

• Teacher will lead discussion on the importance of individual values and how this relates to trees and forests. Students will continue working through booklet.​​

• The value of trees and forests discussion: raw materials, life-supporting environment and recreation.

  • Students will identify why trees and forests are valued​.

  • Students will consider how forests serve as a habitat for a variety of living things.

• Students will continue to unpack the Medicine Wheel focusing on the South quadrant by identifying how humans feel a connection with the environment through their personal values. 

  • Students will fill in South quadrant on Medicine Wheel handout.​​​

• Continuation of poetry: expanding on adjectives and rhyming in continuation of poetry lesson.

  • By the end of this lesson students will learn how to expand on single words using adjectives. 

  • Students will learn what rhyming words are, and their use in poetry. ​

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Day 4

• Students will finish unpacking Medicine Wheel, focusing on the North quadrant, by identifying the roles trees have in relation to a balanced environment. ​

  • Students will fill in North quadrant on Medicine Wheel handout.​

• Introduction of Haiku poetry: with the use of syllables.

  • By the end of this lesson students will have created an original poem​ in relation to nature. 

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Day 5

• Presentation and reflection on completed Medicine Wheels.

• Creating a nature display to present poetry assignment.

  • This is a collaborative assignment that requires students to create a nature themed display​ for the classroom to showcase their nature assignments on leaf-shaped cutouts.  

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Assessment

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Formative:

• The teacher will take anecdotal notes to assess the prior knowledge of each student as they discuss the Medicine Wheel to determine the direction of the next lesson.

• Poetry questions.

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Summative:

• Students will hand in worksheets from trees and forests booklet.

• Poetry assignment - tree/nature poem

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