Year 3
children
setting up
for their
toy sale.
PYP in Action
Term 1 | December 2013
So far, Year
5 raised
over 10000
baht to
help in the
Relief fund
for the
Philippines
.
THE FIVE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS - ACTION
One of the five essential elements of the Primary Years Programme is
‘Action’. This is when we encourage students to ‘take action’ (or to
consciously decide not to take action) as an outcome of their learning.
Action can take the form of personal, local or global action. It can also be
viewed as Direct Action – person to person; Indirect Action – benefits a
community; Advocacy for Action – creating awareness and Research for
Action – finding, gathering and reporting information. Through such action,
students are able to grow both personally and socially, developing skills such
as cooperation, problem solving, conflict resolution, creative and critical
thinking.
Year 3 reflected and chose to act after their unit of inquiry about how we are
responsible for reducing, reusing and recycling materials. As part of the
learning, Year 3 visited the landfill site and realized that people actually live
there in order to make money from things people throw away. The students
came up with the idea to bring in toys from home they no longer play with.
Children sold the toys for 20 baht and the money raised was given to the
families living at the landfill. A great example of direct, person to person
action.
Year 5 is currently investigating the ways people have developed systems to
prepare for natural disasters. Upon learning of the recent devastating effects
of the typhoon in the Philippines, the children devised indirect action to
benefit a community. They are having a swim athon, cookies, used toys and
badge sales as their action.
Not all action needs to involve ‘big’ actions. If your child has changed in their
thinking, behaviour, attitudes or understanding as a result of their learning,
they are taking action.
Oanh Crouch|PYP Coordinator