Grade 3 Begins 'Sharing the Planet'

This week, our Grade 3 learners launched into their new Primary Years Programme (PYP) unit under the transdisciplinary theme: Sharing the Planet. To kick off our journey, we started with a simple yet powerful question: What does "sharing the planet" mean to you? First Impressions: What Does "Sharing the Planet" Mean? Our classroom discussion immediately buzzed with thoughtful ideas. A large number of students focused on environmental stewardship—highlighting the importance of taking care of Planet Earth, recycling, stopping pollution, and working together. A few students also wondered if the unit might take us into outer space to explore other planets!
From there, we grounded our thinking right here on Earth by exploring the concept of resource allocation. The students dove into distinguishing between needs (things essential for survival) versus wants (things that are nice to have).
By the end of the week, we introduced the core concept that will guide our learning throughout this unit: "Humanity's future is dependent on our use of resources." That’s a big statement with some very complex vocabulary! To make sure everyone had a deep, meaningful grasp of what we're exploring, the students broke into small groups for a vocabulary challenge. Each group was assigned one key word to investigate using internet research: HUMANITY, FUTURE, DEPENDENT, USE and RESOURCES. Finding a dictionary definition on the internet was only step one! The real challenge came next: translating those definitions into kid-friendly language. We challenged the students to act as educators. Their goal was to rewrite their definitions so that even the youngest members of our primary section could understand them.
We are so proud of the critical thinking, collaboration, and empathy Grade 3 demonstrated during our first week. We can't wait to see where their inquiry takes them next!

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