Grade 3 Weekly Reflection – Thinking, Inquiring, and Acting to Share Our Planet 💧🌍

This week, Grade 3 continued to explore our Unit of Inquiry “Sharing the Planet”, focusing on responsible water use and how people can take action to ensure everyone has access to clean water.

On Monday, during our Open Day, we proudly presented our Panel Discussion to our parents. Students worked collaboratively in their groups to review and share their information about water use, based on their chosen roles — such as city mayor, farmer or fisherman, factory owner or environmentalist, and family members. With great confidence and communication skills, each group performed their panel in front of the class and parents, sharing their ideas on how to use and protect water resources responsibly. It was a wonderful display of critical thinking, teamwork, and communication skills — true PYP learners in action!

Following this, several questions appeared on our Wonder Wall about where our water comes from and how it becomes clean and safe to drink. To inquire further, we watched an engaging documentary about a water treatment plant, which helped the students understand how water is purified before reaching our homes. Afterwards, they used four key pictures (fresh water, clean water, ocean water, water treatment) to retell the process in their own words. Using their research and thinking skills, they also used iPads to look up extra facts to deepen their understanding.

Building on this knowledge, students took part in a hands-on experiment to create their own water filters. Using cut plastic bottles, coffee filters, and materials like sand, stones, leaves, bark, soil, and cotton, they designed and tested their filters by pouring a muddy water mixture through them. They observed which combinations cleaned the water best and reflected on why some filters were more effective than others. Although the water wasn’t drinkable, the results were fascinating — the clearer water showed how well-designed their filters were! 

To extend their learning, the students then designed their own “Clean Water Machines.” Each student illustrated their invention and wrote a short explanation describing how their machine works, how it helps people, and why it is important. They are excited to present their creative ideas to the class on Monday — a perfect example of taking action through innovation and imagination.

In Mathematics, we continued working on addition and subtraction of whole numbers, and then moved on to generalising with odd and even numbers. Students practiced reasoning and pattern recognition — showing wonderful thinking and logic skills as they identified number relationships.

In English/Language, we explored key words, phrases, and sentences to strengthen comprehension and vocabulary. The class read a story titled “Our Wonderful World” and created mind maps to summarize and visualize the main ideas, demonstrating how we can use thinking and research skills to make sense of texts.

It was a fantastic week full of curiosity, inquiry, and collaboration. Our Grade 3 students truly embodied the Learner Profile attributes of Thinker and Balanced, showing how thoughtful learning and responsible action can make our world a better place.