Involved

Leaving
Changing
Places
Entering New
Places
Reinvolved

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Dear Grade 2 Parents,

We will be starting our year with the Transdisciplinary Theme Sharing the Planet. Please see
our Curriculum Map on the front page of the Grade 2 Weebly to guide you through the next few
weeks of our learning as we explains the major conceptual understandings your child will
develop throughout this unit. It also explains 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 create
conflict and peace. We hope that you will be interested in promoting conversations with your
child at home about peace, non-peaceful interactions and strategies to resolve problems with
others. We will be posting supportive materials and optional activities on our Weebly to help
you and your child align with in-class learning.

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 changing places and entering new
places. Families move to new countries, cultures and school communities. Students change
grades, teachers, friends and schools. It can be a confusing time for those arriving or for those
who have had many friends leave yet it is also an opportunity for those that are involved in our
GWA community to lead and support those around them.

For those that have recently left a home, school or country, they may still be experiencing
elements of the R.A.F.T. process when leaving one place and entering another. You may choose
to talk, ask and share some of these elements that may need to be revisited with your child:

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