Buncee Buddies: Be The Change

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 

Margaret Mead

Your community is part of who you are, and each community is unique, just like you. In fact, communities are like quilts with fabric made of culture, landscape, love, and people’s needs. Addressing these needs can make the community quilt that much stronger, and student creativity can be the answer to these issues.

Buncee Buddies is a digital pen pal program that connects classrooms across the world to engage students in cross-cultural exchanges, critical and creative thinking, and social good. Since 2016, the program has connected 456 classrooms from 28 countries. For the Fall 2017 project, we’re encouraging classrooms around the globe to think about The Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the UN and any challenges or needs their local communities face, collaborating with their peers and pen pals to create innovative solutions.

This project and experience will build global connections, empower student voice, strengthen creativity and innovation, and foster thoughtful citizenship.

Join us this fall for Buncee Buddies: Be The Change! Sign up up is open until September 29th!

Click Here To Sign Up For Buncee Buddies

Project Steps For Buncee Buddies: Be The Change

1. Once you receive your pen pal’s contact information on September 25th, reach out and say hello! Set up a date for a video call and discuss how you’d like to share your Buncee with each other. You can use email and more to share! Check out this link for ideas on sharing Buncees with your Buncee Buddies.
2. If your classroom doesn’t have a Buncee account yet, create an account for you and your students! Upon signing up for the project, Buncee Buddies classrooms receive a 30 day coupon code for Buncee Classroom to their email.
3. Begin with a class discussion focused around the idea of community, global and local. For third – fifth grade classrooms, use this four day lesson sequence created by Buncee Ambassador & Instructional Resource Teacher Amy Nichols to introduce the project! As a class, brainstorm certain issues in your community and discuss them. The issues can be environmental, social, economic, educational, or health related…just to name a few. Use the UN Sustainable Development Goals and resources shared on Twitter with the #TeachSDGs hashtag as guidance as you discuss the issues in your community.
4. Write a list of some community needs (global or local) in front of the class and have each student choose one that they’d like to address OR choose one to work on together as a class.
5. Students will then create a Buncee of their ideas to solve the issue. Buncees can be made by each student, or you can create one together. The Buncee should incorporate text, video, audio, and photos.
6. Share your Buncees! If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, share them with the hashtag #BunceeBuddies and #TeachSDGs. You can meet your Buddies via video call before, after, or numerous times before the Buncee exchange.
7. Add the World’s Largest Lesson sticker, found in the Education category in Stickers, to your Buncee. Mark your class on the Global Goals interactive map, see how people are joining the movement to #TeachSDGs in over 100 countries.

Bring your ideas to life! Work together with you school, your town, and even with your pen pals to bring one of your ideas to fruition.

Example Buncees

And, check out this example of a community solution to help address the need for clean, water – Sustainable Development Goal: 6 Clean Water & Sanitation.

 K-12 Lessons & Activities for Buncee Buddies

• (K-12) Utilize the World’s Largest Lesson for resources to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals with your students.
• (K-12) Have students create All About Me Buncees including information about their community. They can share these Buncees with their Buncee Buddies. Here’s a sample All About Me Buncee.
• (K-12) Students can write acrostic poems about their names or an “I Am” poem, based off this lesson from Random Acts of Kindness Week.
• (Elementary) Read one of the books in the Padlets curated by Shannon Miller and have students create a Buncee as a response to the story. Books About Your Community: https://padlet.com/shannonmmiller/booksaboutcommunity Books About Kindness: https://padlet.com/shannonmmiller/booksfilledwithkindness
• (Middle School) Check out this Goal 5: Gender Equality Lesson, created by educator & #TeachSDGs ambassador Fran Siracusa, and the Buncees created for the lesson by students.
• (6 -12) Watch the videos and explore the photo essays provided by the Global Oneness Project. Search “Community” to find media related to community issues. Discuss the media as a class, and have students create a Buncee as a response to the video/photos.
• Explore these resources and ideas for discussing Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation, created and curated by Fran Siracusa.
• Have your class create a digital story or a write a poem about a topic related to community. Use the video and audio recording feature in Buncee to share your story or poem.
• Make your ideas a reality! Work with your school, community, or your Buncee Buddies to bring the idea to life. Document your work with photos & videos in a Buncee.

Or, think of your own activity ideas for Buncee Buddies: Be The Change!

Standards Aligned With Buncee Buddies

Click here to see just some of the education standards Buncee Buddies is aligned with.

We can’t wait to see the connections made and the creative solutions your students come up with. Email info@buncee.com with any questions!