Susanne Fischer 

This theme encourages inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; and economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.

How We Organize Ourselves

With a foreword by teen Colombian American climate justice activist Jamie Margolin, this fun and empowering guide to making the world a better place is packed with inspiring ideas and tips for kids who want to know how to make a difference. Full of positive encouragement to find something you're passionate about and how to get started on making a big difference through small actions, this brilliant factbook for kids is a treasure trove of information and great advice. There's a lot that can be changed by just one person if you know what to do. If you are a kid with big dreams and a passion for what is right, you just might be a world-changer in the making! Through ideas as small as creating a neighborhood lending library to as important as public speaking and how to talk about politics, How to Make a Better World is a practical guide to activism for children. Well-written and divided into sections on You, Community, Environment, and more, this educational book helps children to look at what they might like to achieve, and the logical approach makes it easy to navigate if you want to tie topics up with school projects. Brightly illustrated inclusive art makes this factbook as visually appealing as its message. You can easily jump around without any loss of comprehension and dip in for short or longer periods. Learn about tricky social interactions like friendship fallouts, or bullying and how to maneuver them, or find out how to go about creating activist campaigns to tackle climate change or social injustice. If kids are to think positive thoughts and be part of movements for positive change, they need to be encouraged to do it. This book is full of wonderful facts about the world, presenting such positivity as cool, sensible, exciting, and achievable. The perfect starter book to activism for kids. Make A Change - Change The World! If you want to create a better world that is equally awesome for everyone, this book is for you. It's packed with tips for how to change the world, one step at a time. You could be an amazing environmental campaigner or a fantastic equal rights champion. Anyone has the power to make a change. Start today, and who knows where your mission to make a better world will lead! Authored by Keilly Swift, the Managing Editor of First News, an award-winning weekly newspaper for children. This kid's educational book teaches children about injustices of the world in a positive way covering topics like: - Finding your cause, discrimination, and spotting fake news - Conservation success and the plastic problem - Animal activism and green living

How to Make a Better World

How to Make a Better World \nis a beautiful book that inspires students to participate in activities to support communities and the environment, as well as to develop habits that have a positive impact on the world. As such, it fits perfectly with the Learner Profile attributes of being principled and caring.  This title would be a great resource to support students inquiring into organizations that work towards sustainability within communities. Why not create a class ‘wish tree’ where each student contributes their wish for a better world? It would be a great starter activity for discussion and display, encouraging learners to think about how they can use their agency for good.\n\nHow to Make a Better World\n is a beautiful guide that explains different aspects of taking action on a personal, local, and global scale. The structure and illustrations throughout the book are engaging, plus it includes easy-to-understand concepts that students may come across when researching and exploring societal decision making and other areas of \nHow we organize ourselves\n.

Money makes the world go round, but how well do children understand finances? Show Me the Money breaks the mold of the school textbook and introduces young readers to the world of economics — from the history of money to e-commerce.Divided into sections that focus on economics, business, personal finance, and the history of trade, Show Me the Money takes technical jargon and breaks it down with easy-to-understand text, diagrams, and illustrations making a formerly dry subject interesting and relevant. Topical questions of ethics are addressed throughout, including free trade, fair trade, debt in the developing world, and the impact of business on the environment. The book also looks at personal finance from saving to pensions, and introduces key thinkers such as Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, to take a look at the bigger picture of the global economy.Updated to be in tune with today's culture of environmental and social awareness, Show Me the Money is a good investment for young people who want to learn about economics and the world around them.

Show Me the Money

Show Me the Money\n \nis the perfect title for students learning to understand more about finance and the economy. The book covers concepts ranging from personal finance and the history of trade and pensions, to global economy and free trade. Those classes inquiring into the structure of the economy within their \nHow we organize ourselves\n unit may find \nShow Me the Money\n particularly useful, as the pages feature engaging images and, more importantly, simple explanations of complex economic concepts. You could create a pretend shop in your classroom with items and price tags, allocating each group of students a budget to see what they would buy and why; the perfect way for them to work together using thinking and communication skills. \n\n

Kids are on a mission to save the Earth! Recycle and Remake is the hands-on, practical guide you need to get started. This gentle, but empowering book is full of creative making activities, information, and ideas that give young eco-warriors (like you!) the know-how to really help the environment. With Recycle and Remake, you will soon be saving trees by making your own seeded recycled paper from junk mail, cleaning up the oceans by turning old carrier bags into kites, friendship bracelets, and colorful weaved baskets and repurposing a cardboard box into a periscope. You'll also learn about sustainable energies by creating a simple solar oven, cutting down on cling-film by making a food wrap from scrap cotton and beeswax, and turning an old t-shirt into a reusable tote bag so you never need to buy a plastic carrier bag again. You can even grow new plants to clean the air in your own upcycled milk bottle planters and using homemade compost. Each of the activities directly relates to an environmental hot topic, such as plastic pollution, food waste, or deforestation. Budding environmentalists all over the world are feeling inspired to do their bit for our unique planet.

Recycle and Remake

Recycle and Remake \nis a lovely book packed with suggestions for how to be more environmentally friendly and reuse materials creatively to reduce waste. You can have lots of fun with your class by repurposing plastic bottles to make planters that are inexpensive to produce, will look amazing displayed in the school, and ideally contain plants that the students have grown! \n\nWith plenty more fun things to make and do, this title would also be very useful for \nHow we express ourselves.\n 

This theme encourages inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and other living things; communities and the relationship within and between them; and access to equal opportunities, as well as peace and conflict resolution.

Sharing the Planet 

In this informative book on recycling for children, you will find everything you need to know about our environment. The good, the bad and the incredibly innovative. From pollution and litter to renewable energy and plastic recycling. This educational book will teach young budding ecologists about how our actions affect planet Earth and the big impact we can make by the little things we do. Did you know that every single plastic toothbrush ever made still exists? Or that there is a floating mass of trash larger than the USA drifting around the Pacific Ocean? It is not all bad news though. While this is a knowledge book that explains where we are going wrong, What a Waste also shows what we are getting right! Discover plans to save our seas. How countries are implementing green projects worldwide, and how to turn waste into something useful. The tiniest everyday changes can make all the difference to ensure our beautiful planet stays lush and teeming with life. It is a lively kid’s educational book with fabulous illustrations and fun facts about the world broken into easy to digest bite-sized bits. Each page can be looked at in short bursts or longer reads for more detail, making it a great children’s book for a range of age groups. Get Involved - Make A Difference! Almost everything we do creates waste, from litter and leftovers to factory gases and old gadgets. Find out where it goes, how it affects our planet and what we can do to reduce the problem. From how to make your home more energy and water efficient, to which items can be recycled and tips for grocery shopping, this book is packed full of ideas on how you can get involved to make our planet a better place to live. This environment book for children has a wealth of ideas for becoming a planet-defending hero: - Discover shocking facts about the waste we produce and where it goes - Learn where about our Earth’s limited resources and how to take some pressure off - Your trash is another man’s treasure - Small changes to take your home from wasteful to super resource efficient - Dive into saving our oceans and super recycling - And much, much more What a Waste is one of several nature books for kids written by Jess French, a passionate conservationist and veterinarian committed to protecting the beautiful world we live in.

What A Waste

What A Waste \noffers students great insight into the world of reduce, reuse, recycle. The well-illustrated pages take readers through a range of topics that educate about pollution, recycling, and renewable energies. This is another title that will inspire students to present their research in an original way, demonstrating their understanding of ATL skills such as self-management and communication. How about asking your class to make posters based on what they have read to help encourage everyone in your school to reduce waste, from minimizing garbage to saving water?\n\n

This timely entry into the award-winning DKfindout! series, explores the past, present, and future of our climate. In 2019 kids around the world went on strike for the future of our planet, and for their own futures. This amazing book on climate change for kids covers what we can do every day as potential activists to help prevent further damaging changes to the climate. The subject matter of this book has become a very hot topic! Find out why climate change is such a big deal. It contains a wealth of facts about the world, figures, predictions and graphical data to help you understand exactly what it all means. It is a great addition to any bookshelf, and a valuable and contemporary resource for all ages. Climate change is now one of the biggest issues we face as a society, and the British and Irish governments have become the first in the world to declare a climate emergency. This book lays out the science behind this natural process that has been exponentially sped up by humans. It explains the different ways in which we have caused the Earth to heat up, from traffic pollution to animal farming, and the vast, widespread effects we are causing. It covers key developments such as the Industrial Revolution, the advent of air travel, and climate activism, such as the People's Climate March to Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion. Come to understand the facts about climate change in these pages and discover what we can do to improve the human impact on our environment. Find Out How To Save The World! A small book filled with fun facts and big ideas! Over 64 pages are packed with information covering all the aspects of climate change including a timeline dating from the 1760s all the way through to 2050, to living with climate change and what we can do about it. DKfindout! Climate Change encourages children to think more about the world around them and is a great aid for any school project on climate change. Inside you will: -Learn about deforestation, the greenhouse effect and transport -Discover the polar crisis, changing sea levels and sinking islands -Explore activism, collective change, and small ways to make a difference DKfindout! Climate Change is one title in the Dkfindout! series of educational books for kids, and the Silver award winner in the MadeForMums Awards 2017 children's books series category. Kids around the world are obsessed with this gorgeous collection, so much so that a range of massive DKfindout! posters for bedroom walls are sold separately. Add to your collection and nurture your little one's interest in the world. Other titles include DKfindout! Solar System, Birds, Castles, Science, Pirates, Coding, Ancient Egypt, Engineering, Reptiles and a whole lot more!

 DKfindout! Climate Change

DKfindout! Climate Change\n is a great research title for students exploring different aspects of climate change within their \nSharing the planet \nunit. The book covers topics such as habitat loss, ocean currents, the impact of carbon dioxide, and environmental activism. Classes could plant their own tomato plants in pots outside or in the classroom to learn about the benefits of growing their own food, and perhaps come up with a menu for a fictional café based on food that they could source or grow locally. \n\nThis is another DK book that will easily cover areas of other transdisciplinary themes and would be suitable for a range of grades and reading abilities. 

Find out how to live more sustainably, manage waste better, and create an eco-home! Garbage tells us a lot about how humans have lived in the past, how we're living now, and the impact our waste disposal has on the environment. To create a more sustainable future, it's important that little eco-warriors know about the different types of waste and how to create less garbage! DKfindout! Garbage is a fun, trivia, and activity-filled book that teaches young children between 5 and 9 years old about the problems the planet is experiencing with waste. Published to engaged young activists keen to make a difference, this waste management book: - Covers topics such as "Electronic waste", "Food we waste the most", and "Recycling ideas for kids" with a clear visual approach - Includes a glossary to help explain new or tricky terms - Contains flaps at the beginning and end that provide extra core references and a quiz to draw children into the content of the book - Features dynamic, highly visual presented topics including a spread about art made from garbage - Checked by specialist consultants and an educational expert to make sure the information is trustworthy and age-appropriate Teach children how important it is to throw out your trash and recycle Thought-provoking and timely, DKfindout! Garbage educates and challenges young readers to ask questions about how garbage is created, disposed of, the biggest contributors to excess waste such as fast fashion, plastic, and electronics - and how they can counter the effects of these culprits. An important yet colorful sustainability book for kids, this title teaches children how to produce less waste and how to manage waste better! They'll learn about recycling, upcycling (even creating art from garbage!), how to stop wasting food, and why plastic is a problem. More titles to Findout! This DKfindout! series introduces children to a range of exciting topics in a fun, engaging way. Checked by specialist consultants and an educational expert, this is not only a source of information you can trust but one that is age-appropriate and supports your child's schoolwork. Other titles include DKfindout! Science, DKfindout Animals, and DKfindout! Forest. DKfindout! series won Silver in the MadeForMums Awards 2017.

 DKfindout! Garbage

DKfindout! Garbage \nis another brilliant title from the same series which students can use as a reference book while exploring the details and difficulties of waste management. The book covers the stages of various types of waste and illustrates the importance of properly discarding a range of materials and items, such as electronics. Information is well-modeled and student-friendly, providing a lot of examples and inspiration for students.  One idea would be to ask your learners to work together on an art display using safe materials that might otherwise go to waste to help learn about repurposing and reusing.\n\n

Read more about incorporating DK books into the IB themes \n‘How we express ourselves and How the world works’ \nand  \n‘Who we are and Where we are in place and time’ \n or head back to \nthe introductory article \nfor an overview of this series. 

Interested in Learning More?

\n\nSusanne Fischer is an experienced and passionate PYP Coordinator and PYP Educator. She has worked at IB schools in the UK, Germany, Norway and Barbados and is a Global Schools Advocate on behalf of the Global Schools Program, an initiative of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). She regularly gets involved in curriculum development projects and has been a presenter at conferences and international curriculum summits. 

About Susanne

This article looks at six DK titles that will be perfect for your \nHow we organize ourselves\n and \nSharing the planet\n units. As outlined in my other articles, it’s well worth browsing \nthe DK site\n to see the fantastic selection of books they offer and continue to publish. Schools looking to offer their classes collections of titles to suit different transdisciplinary themes will have no difficulty finding titles for all units and age groups; plus, there are \nfree guides\n with further suggestions for how to use these titles in your PYP class. You can also explore the \nDK IB Collection of books for the PYP.\n

Using DK resources in the IB PYP: How We Organize Ourselves and Sharing the Planet 

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