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Third Graders Explore Communities, Systems, and Access

Third Graders Explore Communities, Systems, and Access
By: Gemma Warnick

The current third grade unit helps open students' perspectives and empower their decisions. In their unit, Communities create systems to access goods, services, and ideas, the third graders engage in multiple activities, designed to teach the students about the systems in their community that bring them the things they need. This unit will teach them the skills  they need to build and be a part of a stronger, better community in the present as well as in the future.

The activities involved in this unit are spread across multiple classes and subjects. In their science classes, the third graders built a miniature city. They had to consider what parts of the city would require what resources and build parts of the city accordingly. This allows the students to really think through the impact of their decisions as well as see a physical model of the workings of a community. In their English classes, the third graders read the novel, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. The novel is about an underground city called Ember and as part of their unit the third graders pretended to be a citizen of Ember. They were each given a task and got to think through how an underground city might be sustained. This also allowed the students to be creative and use their imagination.

The goal of the unit was not only to teach the third graders about communities and systems, but also to teach them life skills that they can take on into their future. This unit prepares the students to engage in the world around them, achieve their goals, and excel at anything they strive to do.

This article and photos are part of the eighth-grade communications class's media intern project, where students worked on a project for the French International Communications department.

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