The Beginning of the End!?

Last week marked the wind-down of our very first unit of inquiry. Much of our learning in the classroom is built around the concepts we focus on through our units of inquiry. Our unit on diversity helped the boys to use their thinking skills (planning, preparing, discussing, constructing, sorting, comparing, analysing, justifying, observing, recording and reflecting), research skills (locating facts, taking notes and making sentences), communication skills (collaborating, sharing orally, writing, presenting and discussing) and self-management (using time wisely, planning, self-control and cooperating) - just to name a few! We've come a long way since we started this unit in September! The end of such a major conceptual study also marks the beginning of a new unit of inquiry, which will also come to it's own end; hence, the "beginning of the end" cycle that we will repeat many times this year!
Our next unit of inquiry will focus on the concept of communication. We will explore different ways we communicate, how people in the world with challenges communicate, how we communicate using signs and symbols, how authors and illustrators communicate through books, and much more! The concept of diversity will still live on this unit, as communication also relates to diversity! Aspects of what the boys learned will be applied in a new context that will continue to expand their understanding of this very diverse world in which we live.
In math, we are also coming to the end of a focus on skip counting patterns, even and odd numbers, and ordinal numbers, and will be moving on to adding and subtracting, fact families, and memorizing as many of our basic facts as we can.
We've also just begun our study of the three states of matter, which will bring us the opportunity to put our "lab coats" on and engage in lots of experiments with solids, liquids and gases.
We are always busy in grade 2Dynamite - there is so much to learn!
Stay tuned for photos from the Diversity inquiry on our Grade 2 bulletin board in the hallway!