John Bonko · Grade 5 · Shanghai
The Working Wall
A classroom year, made visible.
Learning walls are part of how we learn in our bilingual IB PYP classroom. This is a growing record of our units: the questions students ask, the work they make, and the decisions that change our direction.
Explore the units ↓The unit collection
Our learning walls
Choose a unit to see how its learning wall developed. Each collection brings together classroom photos, student work and reflections on what we adapted along the way.
Unit 2 · 2026–27 · Grade 5
In progress · Week 2 of 6Matter & Materials
How the World Works
Questions, material samples and scientific reports: follow the wall from our first observations towards the Design Fair. Documented through Week 2.
Open
Unit 1 · 2026–27 · Grade 5
CompleteTrade Systems
How We Organize Ourselves
Trade connects people and resources, and these connections can affect communities in expected and unexpected ways.
Open
2025–26 · Grade 5 · 8 weeks
CompletePYP Exhibition
The first documented wall: eight weeks of inquiry, evidence, action and preparation for the PYP Exhibition.
OpenPYP Exhibition was the first unit I documented, and remains an important part of this collection. The record now grows across our Units of Inquiry throughout the year.
Latest documented learning · Matter & Materials
A class example at the start of the Procedure Clothesline
Week 2 · 26–30 Oct · Oobleck & the Procedure Clothesline
The clothesline gives each part of a scientific report a place, from aim and hypothesis through to results and conclusion. Real work can be added beneath the headings as an investigation develops. The oobleck example connects the activity, the question and the writing; it gives students something concrete to refer to when planning later investigations.
Read the latest week →Across the classroom year
A space that grows with the learning
Make thinking visible
Questions, evidence and work in progress give students something to return to, discuss and revise.
Make room for agency
Students help shape the wall and how it is used. Plans can change as their ideas and needs become clearer.
Document the growth
Weekly photographs and reflections show the learning as it develops, including the adjustments along the way.