Overview

All nine critical challenges in this collection support primary students in learning to undertake responsible “social” action—in the home, at school or in the broader community. The critical tasks range from assuming one’s fair share of household or classroom chores, deciding how best to deal with a stray animal and assembling a care package to support a homeless person. Although the challenges exhibit a common theme of social responsibility, they do not constitute a unit of study—they do not follow one from the other. Rather, they are best used independently—either as pre-planned infusions into your program or as spontaneous lessons in response to a teachable opportunity calling for “student action.” In making best use of these critical challenges, feel free to “mix and match.” The specific issues and activities overlap and to some extent are interchangeable. For example, “Helping with a practical problem” and “Being a friend in deed” offer different approaches to overlapping concerns; whereas “Welcoming a newcomer” and “Making a lasting contribution” deal with different topics in similar ways. We have organized the challenges into two parts: meeting our responsibilities and acting out of kindness. Although these categories are not mutually exclusive, the first part focusses on fulfilling one’s duties in the face of problem situations whereas the focus of the second part is on being pro-active in making the world a better place.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Guide to Lesson Format
Overviews of Critical Challenges
Supplementary Resources
British Columbia Curriculum Connections

Critical Challenges
Meeting our responsibilities
A Doing our share
B Helping with a practical problem
C Being a friend in deed
D Helping a stray animal
E Welcoming a newcomer

Acting out of kindness
F Making someone happy
G Making a lasting contribution
H Helping the homeless
I Passing along kindness