February marks the beginning of Black History Month with the theme of Black Excellence: A Heritage to Celebrate; a Future to Build. Throughout the month of February, important teaching and learning in recognition of Black History Month is taking place across the school and curriculum. Please see below for some academic highlights from our Junior School. 

JK: The Junior Kindergarten class read The Colours of Us by Karen Katz and explored photographer, Angelica Dass', Humanae Project. Students discussed racial identity and treating everyone with kindness. Inspired by the book and photographic work, students mixed paint from primary colours to match their unique skin tones. They used the paint to create mixed media self-portraits and wrote an accompanying sentence "My skin is like... (honey/chocolate/oatmeal)".

SK: This month the SK’s are focusing on exploring and learning about diverse influential Black people in the Arts. This week, the SKs have experienced different types of dance, including hip-hop, in connection to their weekly Passion Project. The SKs enjoyed learning about this type of dance, about its history, and learning hip- hop moves. They are also looking forward to learning about diverse artists including Jean Michel Basquiat in the upcoming weeks. 

Grade 1: The Grade 1's continue to learn about Black changemakers and different experiences through books, poems, music, videos, dance, and pictures. Throughout the month they will learn about many great Black individuals and their impact on the world through different mediums. The class will celebrate Black voices and also learn on how to stand up against injustice by using their voice. 

Grade 2: The Grade 2's have been exploring this collection of books from The Book Wrangler during snack and lunch time. The students loved learning about Victor Hugo Green and his Green Book. Next week the Grade 2’s will explore Black History in the Arts and prepare presentations for their Grade 5 Learning Buddies. Click HERE for a sample of some of the people they will learn about.

Grade 3: The Grade 3's have been working on their research skills to learn more about influential Black individuals by writing biographies. Students have chosen an individual to learn about and their role in history. The Grade 3’s have been gathering information such as the obstacles they faced, what they have accomplished, famous quotes, and what they would ask this person if they could. Next week with their Grade 7 Learning Buddies, they will begin practicing skits on influential Black individuals to build their fluency while learning about this history together. We look forward to these presentations at the end of the month. 

Grade 4: In celebration of Black History Month, the Grade 4 class is embracing this year's theme, "Black Excellence: A Heritage to Celebrate; a Future to Build". Each student will be completing a biographical project on a Black Canadian leader or trailblazer of their choice, focusing on individuals who have excelled in their respective fields. The goal of the project is to highlight Black excellence in Canada and the impact these leaders have had on shaping Canadian society. 

Grade 5: Throughout the month of February the Grade 5 students will be celebrating and honouring Black History Month. The students have enjoyed creating their own pennants on influential Black Leaders who fought for equal rights for all. They are also enjoying listening to the audio book of Jackie Robinson who was the first African American to play Major League Baseball.