Concluding the Unit

Time: approximately 20 – 25 minutes
(More time will be needed to extend into making a class big book.)
Grouping: whole class and partners

What Did We Learn? [Self-monitoring]

  • Take a tour of the classroom with the students and pause to look at their artwork, growing plants, books that you have read with them and to them, and their writing. Encourage students to recall how they acted out caring for pandas, making a garden, and helping people understand why they should not litter.

  • What did we learn about caring for the world? How did people care for animals and plants? Could one person do something to help the world? How? Did it help if lots of people worked together? Why?

    Gather together and talk about ‘How do we care for our world?’ You may put the question on a sentence strip in the pocket chart. Use prompts.

What Can I Do? [Self-monitoring]

  • I want each of you to tell us one thing you can do to take care of our world and give a reason. I could say, “I can plant trees so that birds can nest in them.” What can you do?

    Ask the students to talk with a partner or in small groups and think of one thing that each one of them could do to take care of the world. Write a sentence starter: ‘I can…’ and place it in the pocket chart.

  • Ask each student to contribute an ‘I can… statement’. You may conclude with this oral review and affirmation, or you could write down the students’ responses and make a ‘How can we take care of our world?’ class big book. Each sentence, with the child’s name, can be written on a separate page together with an accompanying painting or drawing. The book can be reread and join the class big book collection to be reread as a whole class and in centre time.