Who We Are

Who We Are - An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.

Central Idea: Central idea:Behaviour, survival, growth of living things depends on the function of systems and structures.

NGSS: Structure, Function, and Information Processing

Performance Expectations

  1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. 4-LS1-1
  2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways. 4-LS1-2
  3. Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen. 4-PS4-2

Resources:

  • Teeth - Insects
  • Braces - A science unit - Diversity of life
  • Hearing - Natural Selection
  • Eating Disorders - Eco System
  • Taste - Genetic Mutation
  • Metabolism


  • Adaptations
  • Humans
  • Hereditary
  • Plant Habitat

Books in the iCommons

1. A fruit is a suitcase for seeds by Jean Richards ; illustrated by Anca Hariton. Summary: Provides an illustrated description of seed dispersal by which plants, most specifically fruits, travel from one place to another (nonfiction)

2. Throw your tooth on the roof : tooth traditions from around the world by Selby B. Beeler ; illustrated by G. Brian Karas Summary: Consists of brief statements relating what children from around the world do with a tooth that has fallen out. Includes facts about teeth. (Fiction)

3. How many teeth by Paul Showers. Summary: Introduces teeth, describing how many we have at various stages of life, why they fall out, and what they do.

4. Skin, teeth & hair Anna Sandeman ; illustrated by Ian Thompson. (Series: Body books). Summary: Describes the functions, characteristics, disorders, and care of skin, teeth, and hair

5. Buffalo prairie based on text by Evelyn Lee ; illustrated by Krista Brauckmann-Towns. (Series: Amazing animal adventures) Presents a children's book about a buffalo who faces great hardship and joins with three companions in order to survive the winter months on the prairie, and contains a tear-out poster.

6. Hooway for Wodney Wat Helen Lester ; illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. Summary: All his classmates make fun of Rodney because he cannot pronounce his name, but it is Rodney's speech impediment that drives away the class bully. (Fiction)

7. Homes, holes, and hives by Henry Pluckrose. Summary: Examines different animal homes, how they are constructed, and how they are adopted to suit the life of each animal.

8. What if there were no gray wolves? : a book about the temperate forest ecosystem by Suzanne Slade ; illustrated by Carol Schwartz. Summary: Discusses the importance of each animal in the temperate forest ecosystem, and looks at what would happen if the grey wolf were to become extinct

9. If you hopped like a frog by David M. Schwartz ; illustrated by James Warhola. Summary: Introduces the concept of ratio by comparing what humans would be able to do if they had bodies like different animals.

10. What are camouflage and mimicry? by Bobbie Kalman & John Crossingham, Summary: Explains what camouflage and mimicry are, and looks at how they are used by different animals in the wild.

11. Click! : a book about cameras and taking pictures by Gail Gibbons Summary: Describes the basic parts of a camera and how to take photographs.

12. Insect bodies Molly Aloian & Bobbie Kalman. (Series: World of insects series) Summary: Describes the anatomies of different kinds of insects, explaining how each body part, such as the legs, wings, antennae, and mouthparts, helps them survive.