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Article Post
17 Oct 2022
by Susanne Fischer
Using DK resources in the IB PYP: Who We Are and Where We Are in Place and Time
Hopefully, my introductory article has sparked your interest in finding out a little more about some of the wonderful books DK has published. In this second feature, I’ve selected a few titles below that link to some concepts of two of the PYP transdisciplinary themes, Who we are and Where we are in place and time. There are lots of brilliant titles that can be used in the PYP classroom and the possibilities are far greater than what’s being shared here. I encourage you to take a look at the full range to find even more suitable titles to support your inquiries, and to access free guides to using DK collections in your classrooms, complete with suggested lesson ideas and worksheets. You can also explore the DK IB Collection of books for the PYP.
Who We Are
This theme encourages inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; person, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities, and what it means to be human.
DK have selected books for this transdisciplinary theme which focus on emotions, well-being and learning about life skills – concepts that have become even more important since the pandemic. Many schools have introduced (or re-introduced) a greater focus on these concepts to support their students as they recover from the impacts of the global events that have interrupted their learning and well-being.
Life Skills
£10.99
View BookLife skills covers a whole range of concepts and ideas, relevant to Who we are, but also to the approaches to learning (ATL skills). It inspires students to be the best possible type of learners and aims to equip them with a fantastic scope of skills, all packaged in an exciting and colorful book. Ranging from coping with stressful and unfamiliar situations, to healthy habits and understanding the domino effect of behaviours, this book really covers a lot of the skills we want our students to learn about. The book also highlights a range of awareness days and suggests student-friendly links and further resources. Again, this is a book that can inspire all sorts of fantastic classroom activities. Reading the section about communication skills (great link to the ATLs), I immediately thought of a task where students create a ‘Communication Superhero’, which could make for an amazing classroom display to include all the features we want to see in great communicators.
Life Skills is a brilliant resource to have in a PYP classroom as it covers so many aspects of what our Programme is about and what we want our learners to be. As the concepts in this book are a little more complex and advanced, I would recommend this book to be used in upper PYP classes, though of course some ideas could be simplified to suit younger learners, too.
Calm - Mindfulness For Kids
£10.99
View BookAnother wonderful book to help students with emotions and focus is Calm: Mindfulness for Kids. This is not your typical mindfulness guide focusing solely on breathing techniques – it offers an amazing range of hands-on activities to support focus, calmness and self-awareness such as making ‘Energy Slime’ and supporting one another with ‘Breathing Buddies’. Ideas and activities such as these can help students to stay calm and focused throughout the day with the additional benefit of building a sense of togetherness as they work collaboratively.
Apart from supporting the mental health focus of Who we are themes, Calm also offers activities linked to some of the learner profile attributes, as well as some key concepts. A ‘Caring Scrapbook’ may be a nice opportunity for your students to keep a record of situations to help document when they have been particularly caring to a member of the school community, or their family. The book also offers some great ideas for reflection activities, which I am very thankful for! It gives us an opportunity to make reflection tasks more varied and engaging.
Calm is a great book that will come in handy in your classroom, not just during your Who we are inquiry. It offers so many fantastic ideas and activities, all in one place, and accessible to all learners.
My Mixed Emotions is a fantastic book to help your students understand how and why we experience certain emotions. The book breaks down the science behind different emotions and can therefore help students to have a greater understanding of why they might feel a certain way in a certain situation. This title offers some great inspiration for a whole range of classroom activities, including the different stages of the ‘Emotions HQ’. This could be set up in your classroom to model the different stages students go through as they experience a range of emotions. Each concept in the book is supported by scientific facts with activities can easily link to lines of inquiry concerned with exploring systems within the human body.
Another great idea inspired by this book is ‘A bowl of happiness’ which could be turned into a reflection or essential agreement task for your class. Why not create a recipe for happiness with your students and add it to a big display bowl that everyone adds to? It could be a nice reminder for everyone that we all contribute to each other's happiness throughout the course of a school day.
My Mixed Emotions is packed with amazing ideas and activities for your classroom and is suitable for all ages, year groups and abilities. The activities can easily be differentiated and would easily see you through an entire school year. The book covers a wide variety of emotions that students may need support with, including big changes such as grief, divorce, jealousy, fairness and so much more.
Where We Are In Place and Time
This theme encourages inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationship between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
The three books I am focusing on for Where we are in place and time make great resources for a PYP department as they include a whole range of historical and geographical concepts, events and facts. They are packed with plenty of ideas to inspire and support students as they discover different locations, eras and significant global occurrences.
Children's Illustrated History Atlas
£12.99
View BookThe Children’s Illustrated History Atlas is a great resource to teach students how to use maps, as well as timelines. It identifies and explains key features and offers an incredible range of ways to lay out different overviews of time and place. Spanning from the ‘Ancient World’ to the ‘Modern World’, the History Atlas could be used in multiple year groups inquiring into different time frames or, if you have several copies available, would make a great baseline for groups within your class exploring and researching different eras of history. The book also includes some nice ideas to teach students how to use reference books and how to find information by suggesting an ‘Atlas picture quiz’ and a ‘Find the fact’ quiz. Using ‘Find the fact’ could be a nice opportunity for teachers to model ‘reading with a purpose’. Students could be tasked to find particular facts ‘hidden’ within the book and, in turn, could challenge each other to find particular facts, making reading and exploring facts in the History Atlas an engaging activity.
People & Places another amazing book, packed with facts and visual overviews for students. Again, this is a resource that could be shared across year groups and even transdisciplinary themes, as it also includes some great information for those classes who may explore cultures during their Who we are unit.
This book is incredible and features stunning photographs from around the world. It’s a great resource for students researching the reasons for migration, how societies operate in different places, or comparing homes and environments. The content can be used as inspiration for how to lay out work, supporting another one of the ATL skills. The way that maps, images and information are laid out throughout the book could be a great way to model how to present information in books or on poster boards. As People & Places offers many comparisons between different cultures, students could focus on topics such as housing and use the book to create overviews and presentations of the different types of homes found in different countries and cultures. There would even be scope to plan group activities with different groups focusing on different topics (housing, food, sports, clothing etc.) before feeding back to the class.
Our World in Pictures: Countries, Cultures, People & Places
£14.99
View BookFor those classes exploring geographical features and concepts, Our World in Pictures: Countries, Cultures, People and Places offers beautifully illustrated pages packed with information about different countries and their cultures. The key facts are organised on double pages, offering a quick overview of facts, which may be beneficial for research tasks involving a range of places around the world. The way the pages are designed may inspire students to create their own overviews of countries and cultures, using the features presented in the book. Again, this would cover ATL skills that will be beneficial for students as they progress through the Primary Years Programm
Interested in Learning More?
Read more about incorporating DK books into the IB themes ‘How we express ourselves and How the world works’ and ‘How we organise ourselves and Sharing the planet,” or head back to the introductory article for an overview of this series.
About Susanne
Susanne 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.
