Involved

Leaving
Changing
Places
Entering New
Places
Reinvolved

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Dear Grade 2 Parents,

We will be starting our last Unit of Inquiry, Sharing the Planet, this week. Please see our
Curriculum Map on the Grade 2 Weebly, which will guide you through the next few weeks of
our learning. It explains the major conceptual understandings your child will develop
throughout this unit, as well as how the unit will be approached through different subject areas
and by different teachers.

Grade 2 will be inquiring into how relationships and interactions within communities can create
conflict or peace. We hope that you will be interested in promoting conversations with your
child at home about peace, peaceful and non-peaceful interactions and strategies we use to
obtain peace in our lives. A focus on transitions and how they can affect relationships with our
peers will be a large part of our unit as we all transition to Grade 3 at GWA or beyond. We will
be supporting students through the RAFT transition cycle, which is further explained below.

Living Internationally
Sharing Nomadic Connections

All families experience transitions as they move homes, change jobs
or schools. Families that choose to live and work abroad experience
the same transition cycle though often with more frequency and
intensity. Basically, a Transition Cycle includes 5 stages.

There may be points where the entire family is in the same place in the cycle though often
individuals within a family move through it differently. There may be a child experiencing leaving
at the end of a school year while a parent is feeling involved at work. Recognizing this allows for
important family discussions and may help explain behaviors and emotions.

At this time of year, there are many students and families entering the leaving phase. Students
change grades, teachers, friends and schools. Families move on to new countries, cultures and
school communities. It can be an intense, overwhelming and confusing time for those leaving. It
can have a huge impact on friends and family that may be staying and feeling left behind.

There is a process suggested by the late researcher David Pollock that uses the acronym R.A.F.T.
to encourage caring and healthy endings. Take the time to talk, ask and share:

R = Reconciliation Who might you need to say sorry to or forgive?
A = Affirmation / Acknowledgement - Who had the greatest impact on you?
F = Farewells - Have you said good-bye to the 4Ps (people, places, pets and possessions)?
T = Think Destination - What are you looking forward to and getting excited about?

David C. Pollock & Ruth E. Van Reken, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds
(Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2009), 181.

We hope that you enjoy this unit of inquiry at home, as much as we will in the classroom!

With kind regards,

The Grade 2 Team