In third grade in St. Charles, Illinois the curriculum is integrated around the theme of community. The children study the local community, Native American communites, and the world community as they learn research skills. Every classroom has direct Internet access, many print resources, and a number of CD-Rom titles including several world atlases. Key Pals . Using one of the Internet sites suggested, teachers locate four or five key pals in different areas of the world.
Students work in cooperative groups to maintain a correspondence with one of the key pals.
They are especially interested in asking questions about the schools, foods, homes, and recreational activities that take place in the key pals' countries. Children begin the unit by receiving a letter written by the Sons of Charlemagne the Fox, who live on the Main Street bridge. This letter may be printed, viewed online, or received as an e-mail message. In order to find out the information requested, students begin to do basic research on the different continents. One way to accomplish this is to set up a station for each continent, with each station containing two or three books about that continent.