This story was also featured in the Fall 2018 Lausanne Magazine, and gives an example of the PYP in our third grade classrooms.
This story gives an example of the curriculum our third graders are learning in the Primary Years Programme, and can also be found in the 2018 Fall Lausanne Magazine.
For our third-graders, figuring out where we are in time and place involves learning about inventors and inventions from across the world.
The class of 2027 learned how inventions and the people who created them connect us globally. They also investigated the process of creating an invention and how technology changes over time.
“We spent some time learning about female pilots and the invention of flight,” said third grade teacher Mary Fonseca. “Our students learned that all inventors take risks and make a variety of plans before finishing their final invention.”
Students not only become more aware of how the past has shaped the present, but they incorporate that knowledge across different subject groups. The third-graders researched different inventors and inventions in a Reading Workshop, a time for students to build their reading comprehension. As they worked on their writing abilities, the students created stories based on what they had learned. Math skills were fostered as they designed an invention of their own: a marble run stretching over nine feet in length!
As a part of the PYP, it is important for students to be able to make connections with where we are in time and place, and learning about inventions and inventors helps shape their perception of what is going on in the world around them.