Now that the enormous map of the world the Grade 2 students ordered is up on the wall in their classroom, the class has begun to make connections around all the things they've discovered during their ongoing global studies. To begin with: food. 
A trip to The Royal Winter Fair and some discussions with Ontario farmers has the class exploring where our food comes from. They have collected millions of stickers detailing where the food in their homes comes from and they plan to mark all these places on their giant map with stickies. They also plan to label places they've been to on holidays, where their parents and grandparents come from and where the clothes they wear are from, all in hopes of making some real worldly connections.
"Anditis" has struck again in the class. The cause is no doubt all the work the students have done on sentences and sentence structure. Part of that study involved learning more about conjunctions such as "and, or and because." The class has been experimenting with these conjunctions, writing stories and seeing how many conjunctions they can cram into their sentences. "It's amazing the amount of writing they are doing," says Chris. And all this writing is also consolidating the proper use of other grammar rules, including capitalization and periods, etc. They've discussed how many conjunctions one can use in a sentence to make it "sound right." Two or three seems to be the consensus. Experiments with breath and expressive reading helped to decide this.
Multiplication is the focus in Math and the famous Grade 2 Multiple Monsters are about to rise up. The students will be creating a creature that has multiples of a number of their choice A "four monster" might have four eyes, four ears, four teeth and four nostrils. Each student will do a different monster.
The class is also arranging their own Readathon to help raise the funds needed to send 1500+ picture books collected by Grade 3 to the Gambia and the BOOKO organization. Each student has created a graph to chart their reading progress. Each square on the chart represents five minutes and one line filled in equals an hour. “For every hour we read,” explains Vivienne, “we get sponsored by somebody. I’m hoping to fill in my whole sheet. 24 hours!”
Our Grade 1's remain deeply immersed in a class study of water. 
Recent experiments in Computer, Science and Inquiry (CSI) around evaporation and condensation have provided the students with a better understanding of the water cycle and the states of matter. A snow and ice workshop at the Kortright Conservation Centre was a perfect opportunity to conduct some freezing and melting experiments and observe more closely the characteristics of falling snowflakes.
The class is also becoming well established in their four water animal research groups—fish, turtles, sharks/sponges and snails. Each student has chosen which water animal he or she would like to study and are sharing what they know about their water creature and what they wonder. Some children are working independently, others with a partner, and some in small groups to collect information. This part of the study has integrated nicely with Art. The students have chosen an art topic and designed their own independent project to help communicate their understanding of these creatures. The art topics available are Painting, Clay, Sculpture, Printmaking, Drawing or Collage. Each water artist has been working with passion and inspiration to bring their research creature to life through one of these mediums. Says Brenda, "The experience is so valuable for the students. A child's best learning comes from their own excitement and energy and an independent study like this accommodates that, allowing them to go deeper in their learning."
Also in CSI, the class is working on developing their computer skills, adding text to pieces of artwork they've created in KidPix.
R
esearch on African animals continues in Senior Kindergarten. Each student has chosen an animal for their individual study and facts about lions, hyenas, zebras, lizards and hawks now fill their journals and research books. As a class, they have discussed the best ways to find information about their animals and are learning all about the African savannah. This study too is fully integrated — in Art they've completed colourful African themed paintings and are now busy creating their own animals using boxes, tubes, crates and other sculpture materials before papier mache is applied. In CSI they are searching for supporting research on the Internet.
In Math, the class is doing number recognition from 11 to 20 and introducing adding and subtracting work involving up to three numbers!
Junior Kindergarten to the rescue! At the end of last term, Susan noted two interests taking hold in the class—the workings of the human body and super heros. Hoping to tie the two strands together, the class is embarking on a study of the senses (both animal and human) and nature's defenses (animal and human). As the students become experts in these areas, they will be encouraged to design their own "super hero profile" using their acquired knowledge. The class has discussed everyday animal and human heros such as firefighters, forest rangers, rescue dogs, worms (they make the soil and that is pretty much one of the most important jobs on the planet!), and how any one of us could be a hero. With the students enthusiasm and interests mapping the direction, it will be exciting to see what emerges from this study. One thing is for certain — it will integrate aspects of language, math, science, music and art. Stay tuned!
The language focus this term involves lots of fun and active experiences to support each student at their own level and pace. The class is starting the Handwriting Without Tears program and continuing with activities designed to develop the fine motor control that will allow them to be successful in this area. Winter term paintings and self-portraits are underway and in Math, the class is continuing on with their number books.
