At Mundo Verde, we believe that how children learn is just as important as what they learn.
Our curriculum is designed around expeditions. Expeditions are long term, in-depth studies of social studies and science content of real-world issues. Students make connections across content areas, such as reading to research and writing to teach or persuade others. They are engaged in hands-on projects that spark curiosity, promote active learning, encourage teamwork, build character, and capitalize on children’s innate spirit of adventure.
Expeditions encourage students to learn to make connections, understand diverse perspectives, develop conclusions, generalize to big ideas, and understand how their lives are connected to the world around them. Students learn from fieldworks experiences as well as experts in the field. At the end of each expedition, students showcase their learning through products that promote high-quality and craftsmanship. Students at Mundo Verde have shown their learning as restaurant owners, videographers, authors, entrepreneurs, song writers, clean water advocates, living history actors and actresses, and more!
For more information about Expeditionary Learning, you can visit eleducation.org.
See an example of our First Grade students' expedition below:
First Grade: People, Places, and Play - Oh My!
In the spring of first grade, students take part in a mapping expedition. They explore questions such as:
What are maps? What is treasure?
How can we explore the places around us?
How do we connect with the places we love?
In the Spanish class, students connect people and places by creating maps of our special places, like our school. They incorporate mathematical concepts of measurement and non-fiction reading and writing to teach others about the importance of maps in our world. In English students connect places and play by using maps to find treasures and learn about the meaning of treasure in our everyday lives. They use reading inference, poetry, and photography skills to create a treasure hunt game for a local park to be checked out by other visitors to spread the word about the treasures of nature all around us.
