Partnering with Community Members to Enhance Our Understanding of the World

Last week our 1st grade was fortunate to have guest speakers from our community; a firefighter, state trooper, lawyer & middle school principal connected to a unit of inquiry they are exploring under Sharing the Planet. Our school counselor, Mrs. Mutscher, also contributed to this unit with a counselor lesson.

The central idea is: “Citizens can work together to create a peaceful and organized community.” In this unit 1st grade investigates characteristics of good citizens before discussing how cooperation leads to a peaceful community, and resolving conflicts peacefully. This is an important unit for students, as it helps in the establishment of a collaborative classroom, illustrates different perspectives on cooperation and provides opportunities for the children to practice peaceful conflict resolution.  In their presentations, our community representatives talked about how they work with others to “keep the peace.”

One of the benefits of teaching and learning in the PYP is how it strives to provide students with a way to connect to their learning. It does this by making that learning relevant. By bringing in members of the community, 1^st grade teachers were able to support students as they made these connections. The opportunity to ask questions of the speakers allows our students to engage in meaningful conversation and deepen their knowledge of the concepts they are studying.