Our goal in highlighting identity to our Grade 4 students is to foster self-awareness, confidence, and empathy for those around them. At this stage in their academic journey, our students are forming their sense of self, and it's important to create a supportive environment where they can explore who they are, including their cultural background, interests, and personal/family values. Likewise, teaching identity to our Grade 4 students helps them explore who they are while laying the foundation for positive social and emotional development to cultivate a classroom culture of acceptance and belonging.

Throughout the unit, we focus on five essential questions. What is identity? How is identity developed? How does identity affect our relationships? What makes me who I am? Why and how do identities change over time? Our goal is to create a safe, inclusive space where students feel comfortable sharing and exploring their own experiences and perspectives within the framework of these questions.

To promote clear expectations, we expose our students to a variety of inclusive literature and age-appropriate vocabulary to give them the tools to have open and inclusive discussions. We invite our students to explore their identity by reflecting on their personal narratives, relationships, and home/family life. Additionally, using an identity map, our students dissect other aspects of their identity to find commonalities among one another while celebrating their uniqueness. They explore things such as their hopes, fears, heroes, important moments, their family and home life, and issues they feel strongly about. Bringing these aspects to the forefront of their identity development allows students to see themselves as more than their physical appearance.

The collaboration between music, art, and technology plays a significant role in shaping, expressing, and exploring identity. At JTD, we are fortunate to work with talented and accomplished specialist teachers. They provide pivotal and innovative platforms for self-expression, which allow our students to delve deeper into their personal narratives. Our music specialists, Karen Spurney and Abby Tyrrell, recreated a rendition of the song "I Don’t Want to Be" by Gavin DeGraw to showcase our students' musical talents as they confidently declared a word that represents their identity. With support from our Director of Educational Technology Coordinator & Integration Specialist, Emma Hedgecock, Grade 4 students designed and generated stickers revealing their identities in a tangible way. Finally, with the support of our amazing art team, Lindsay Parker, Sarah Hoosan, and Robin Gleason, our students proudly wore buttons displaying a word they chose to represent their identity. With their collective expertise, we were able to bring the students' identities to life.