My Community

My grade 5 class will discover their community through photography by borrowing "class" cameras, to bring home, throughout the year. Picture assignments: buildings (architecture, businesses, churches, services etc.), landscape, people in my town, family etc. Each assignment will contain a research component and written response or presentation (L.A). This will coincide with our Soc. S. unit on communities in the 1800s and their values - changes in society. We will borrow books from and visit the museum in our area (archives) to learn more about our community in the past and present. Students will present these images/research/writing in an exhibit at the local museum.

Update (March 22, 2012)

Since January, the grade 5 class has been researching, researching, researching!
To start the project off, students we’re placed in groups with other students who came from the same town. We are a tiny rural school and some students come from as far as 40-50 km away! That’s a 1 and a half-hour bus ride each way! Yikes! There are approximately 6-7 towns from which the students arrive each morning. The students know very little about their town’s history or even what is currently going on their towns.

Students have used the following resources to find out more:
Town centennial books, asking questions to: parents, grandparents, neighbors and some students were brave enough to go to their local town hall; and of course, the internet.

The students discovered there isn’t much on the Internet about their towns, so we had to be creative on what we would report on. Students are working on such features stories as: Biographies or events in history; also the history of businesses, schools or homes.

The students will display what they have learned at the local museum. The Missisquoi Museum has been very kind in lending us books, and helping us find information. We are hoping to organize a visit to their archives.

The students have also been practicing their photography skills because they will also create a display of beautiful landscapes and buildings from their towns. Some of them are preparing “Then and Now” posters which display old photographs of buildings from years and years ago, and what those buildings look like now. The museum gave us a “Photo Treasure Hunt” with several pictures of old buildings in Bedford (where our school is located) and we went into town to see if we could figure out where the photos were taken, and then try to take a picture from the exact same angle. Some of them were tough because the buildings didn’t exist anymore! We had to find other clues in the photo!

Update (May 2, 2012)

Our exhibit will take place at the Misssisquoi museum on May 9th, 10th and 11th. To be honest, it has been a bit of a rough go at getting the students to take pictures and research in their towns! I have done this project in previous years with other groups, and it went quite smoothly. This group is a bit of a challenge! There is very little motivation and independence. So we’ve simplified a little: instead of many different stories, biographies, etc. each group had to do one feature story and one “then and now” poster. I gave them old pictures of buildings in their town and they had to go find where it was and take a picture of it from the same angle. Still… it was like pulling teeth! When I bought the 3 new cameras, bags, batteries, and all that’s needed (with my funding) – that got them pretty excited. I also decided to challenge them with a “photo scavenger hunt”. Get a point for each one of the one hundred items you find on the list. Well! Now the competition is on…and they are taking pictures for their projects too!