All about me

Our IPC unit called 'All About Me' has been very informative and fun.
Through some of the following activities we worked towards the IPC objectives and strands.

Independence and Interdependence

The routines of class and school are now known, and we have learnt a lot about relationships. We have celebrated our diversity: we are all different in appearance and interests, yet we are connected and friends.
We all come with our own personal stories and strengths.
We talked about getting along with new or different people and standing up for ourselves by setting boundaries as in our boundary song.
Throughout this unit the learners developed new skills playing alone, with and alongside other children and even interacting with the elderly in the retirement home.

Communication

We read a variety of books, both story and fact books, and we learned and played with rhymes. We also sang songs such as "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". We tried to sing this in the different native languages of our friends. We discovered similarities and differences in these languages.
In addition to naming body parts and organs, we also looked at recognising/reading the names supported by pictures. This was in addition to our structured Jolly Phonics lessons.
We also recorded our conclusions during our class statistic lessons. These were an excellent opportunity for lots of meaningful counting and even some mathematical operations.
Furthermore we had fun measuring with non-standard units. We made outlines of our friends with blocks and counted the blocks needed for certain body parts. We also sorted bones by length in math cubes and measured ourselves. It will be fun to see how the children grow throughout the school year.

Exploring

The children have been exploring their bodies both inside and out in sport and in class. Everyone painted their own portrait. Some children also coloured in a life-size outline of a friend, while other children independently made skeletons with cotton sticks. Everyone also made a collage of their flags in line with our personal stories, which provided excellent cutting practice. The older students also painted globes, focusing on the different continents.

We also talked about the human life cycle and how our bodies change. We sequenced and sorted pictures of different people of all ages. We looked at the growth of babies and some children chose to paint a picture of elderly hands using water-coloured paints. In addition, we spoke about losing our baby teeth. Soaking eggshells in different liquids reinforced the need to take care of our teeth.

Healthy Living

In addition to touching upon keeping our teeth and bodies healthy, we focused on independence during transitions such as playtime or snack time. We will continue practicing paying attention and concentrating, as well as expressing emotions and emotional needs throughout the school year.

The children are now more aware of the zones of regulation and their impact on our bodies. There have been many opportunities to practise coping with change and overcoming fear, not in the least the visit to the spider exhibition and our “Día de los Muertos” or Halloween celebration.