The Greek Islands

I love Liam's school!  While they still have 2 weeks left, they will be doing a week of Mini Society and then his class will be away for a 3 day trip.  At the end of the academic portion of the semester, the kids present their work to friends and family.

Twice a year, parents and community members are invited into the school to visit our classrooms and enjoy a special exposition of the children’s work. At these student expos which we affectionately call "Fair," the children perform speeches, plays and songs based on their learning experiences all semester. Displays, demonstrations, written reports, poems and models make these events exciting for all involved and it is a delight to see children of all ages show pleasure and pride in public speaking. It is also a joy to watch these skills develop in such a positive and gentle way over the course of a child’s time at the school.

This semester Liam's class studied Islands, under the whole year theme of "Oceans".  The kids sang a song that mentioned more islands then I could have named:

Then we were taken on a tour of all the islands that the kids had studied.  Each one gave us a few facts about their island and showed us their diorama that they had made.  Liam told us about the Greek islands.

After, you could go around the room and visit each kid at their station and ask more questions.  Liam also took us on a tour of the room showing us all of his work.

His Greek Island poster of information.

A Haiku about islands.

As part of their studies, the class built an island by adding sand everyday to a dish of water.  Once it built up enough they were even able to grow seeds in it.

Since they cycle through the main themes every 5 years, Hilary and I are pretty sure that next year's theme will be Nova Scotia.  Can't wait to see what we learn about it this time around!