End of Unit Projects in the IB PYP
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) promotes the holistic development of children. In addition to academic skills, the focus is on character building and social, physical and emotional development. Many lessons include problem-solving tasks and projects that encourage students’ creativity. Our students are regularly encouraged to choose creative ways of solving problems, also when presenting what they have learned at the end of a teaching unit. Each End of Unit is concluded by a celebration and/or a project.
End of Unit Project
Last week, all of our primary students met to work on a project together, to conclude their unit of inquiry. At Tessa International School, we have three dual-language tracks: French, Mandarin and Spanish. Students from the different tracks love to interact with each other, sharing the language but also different concepts they studied independently in their classrooms.
Their Unit of Inquiry, Who we Are, focused on the central idea that as responsible citizens, we contribute to our community.
They learned about:
- What a citizen is.
- Rights and responsibilities of citizens.
- Community helpers and their role in the wellbeing of our community.
For this project, they explored the use of community buildings, and the duties of community helpers.
Divided into small groups, they were given a problem: how could they reuse a big pile of cardboard (that they collected in a previous project) and make it into something useful to the community? They came up with the idea to build a city: they needed a hospital, a school, housing, a fire station…
This project allowed them to put into practice various skills such as problem solving, team collaboration, geometry, civic education, literacy and arts- a true transdisciplinary activity!
The Leadership Idea in PYP
The PYP Unit of Inquiry strongly promotes ownership by empowering students to take action at the end of a teaching unit based on what they have learned. During their projects, PYP students are inspired to think about themselves and their world and to solve problems.
