HOW WE’RE “SHARING THE PLANET”

REFLECTIONS ON OUR GRADE 5 STUDENTS’ EXHIBITION PROJECTS
 
By Mia, Grade 5
 
The Grade 5 Exhibition is a six-week-long project where we are put into groups to inquire deeply into a topic of interest. The topic that my group selected was child poverty. We started off by developing our own lines of inquiry, including the different aspects of child poverty, how child poverty has evolved and been impacted, and finally our responsibility to educate people and make a positive change. 
 
Our first action was to make a silhouette/shadow show, showing what the day in the life of a child in poverty would look like. We began with a typical day of a child in poverty, waking up on the streets, not getting the nutrients she needs, not having warm clothes, and begging. We incorporated a dream into it where she experienced a day wearing a warm jacket, having a full lunch, and not needing to beg. This show is a way to teach people about the problem of child poverty and to spread awareness. 

After speaking with experts, we learned that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. UNICEF established a program where you can raise money to give the opportunity for girls to go to school. Since we are BH girls, we felt a connection to supporting young girls like us and we raised money by making and selling stickers. It was very exciting when we raised $135, which will allow four girls to go to school.  
 
Our Grade 5 Exhibition changed my perspective tremendously. It has taught me to continue to inquire into topics that I am interested in. Most importantly, I am proud to be the voice for children that are not as fortunate as me. As I like to say: “Help can be given, help can be taken, but help should not be forgotten.”
 
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By Bailee, Grade 5
 
As part of our Grade 5 Exhibition, my group chose to study ocean plastic pollution and acted in lots of different ways.  
 
We had a meeting with the cafeteria to discuss how they can help the ocean. Our goal was to persuade them to use less plastic and replace it with a more environmentally friendly alternative. The plastics they use, such as cutlery and food wrappers, are harming the environment and getting into the ocean, hurting all living creatures. Did you know plastic never goes away? It becomes microscopic pieces of plastic that are 1,000,000 times more toxic. We know right now making a big change would be challenging because of the pandemic, but we still need to reduce, reuse, and refuse plastic as much as possible.

Another thing we did was a letter campaign. We wrote to companies who are doing a really good job to congratulate them, and we wrote to companies who are not doing the best that need to start helping the environment more. We were shocked to learn that Coca-Cola is the topmost polluting company on Earth and produces more than 2.9 million pieces of plastic each year.  
 
We have been trying to raise awareness so others can also stand up for change. We sold sketchbooks, with suggestions for reducing ocean pollution and illustrations we had drawn. The money we raised will go to an organization called The Ocean Cleanup, which right now has the best technology for cleaning up oceans in the world.  
 
Our Grade 5 Exhibition has been such an amazing experience. It was so fun to work as a group, and we really bonded over the last six weeks. We learned that ocean plastic pollution is a big problem, but there are ways to help such as raising awareness, along with reducing, reusing, and refusing plastic.

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By Isabella L., Greta, Peyton & Olivia Gillies, Grade 5
 
There are many steps during the Grade 5 Exhibition process. First, we make up lines of inquiry that help to put us on the right track for research. After we create those, we start our research. At the end of each week, we display the research we have done over the past week in any form we wish, including QR codes, poster boards, art projects, and more. We were able to be as creative as we wanted! 
 
As a grade, we decided on a very smart, fun way to share our learning — in a TV show format! We took all our research and put together a script for our final TV show, then filmed it, and finally edited the content. We wanted to make sure that we made an eye-catching video, which brought us to the end of our Exhibition last week, but not the end of our learning! Our knowledge and actions continue. The process was for learning about the issue, and the rest is up to us to act and make a change.
 
As a group, we collaboratively created a book about Black Lives Matter, which is available at this link.