Susanne Fischer 

This theme encourages inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social, and spiritual health; human relationships, including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities, and what it means to be human. \nDK has 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 to support their students as they recover from the impacts of the global events that have interrupted their learning and, in some cases, affected their well-being. 

Who We Are

Life Skills \ncovers a whole range of concepts and ideas, relevant to \nWho we are\n, 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 behaviors, 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 content 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 a fun and informative classroom display to include all the features we want to see in great communicators\n\nLife Skills\n 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.  

Teach your kids how to focus their thoughts and notice the world around them with this fun mindfulness kids activity book. Mindfulness activities are a great way to teach children about their thoughts and feelings and how to understand them--while having fun at the same time. This book is packed with activities--make a mindfulness jar, learn how to appreciate food with mindful eating, and get out into nature and explore the outside world. An illustrated journal section at the back of the book encourages children to make notes about their own thoughts and feelings Calm: Mindfulness for Kids has everything you need to know about focusing your child's mind to help them enjoy and appreciate things that they take for granted every day, while boosting their confidence and self-esteem. Children are guided through each activity, to make sure they achieve maximum enjoyment and awareness. All children will learn and react to each activity in a different way and parent's notes give advice on how to encourage children to embrace mindfulness in the modern world. Each specially designed activity is flexible for each child's needs and inspires them to seek calmness and tranquility in all situations. Calm: Mindfulness for Kids shows that supporting a child's positive mental health doesn't need to be expensive, time-consuming, or difficult. Activities help children to de-stress, focus, and get moving while having fun.

Calm: Mindfulness for Kids

Another wonderful book to help students with emotions and focus is \nCalm: Mindfulness for Kids\n. 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. \nApart from supporting the mental health focus of \nWho we are \nthemes, \nCalm: Mindfulness for Kids \nalso offers activities linked to some of the Learner Profile Attributes, as well as some Key Concepts. A ‘Caring Scrapbook’ provides 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 plenty of opportunities to make reflection tasks more varied and engaging.\n\nCalm: Mindfulness for Kids\n is bound to come in handy in your classroom, not just during your \nWho we are\n inquiry. It offers so many fantastic ideas and activities, all in one place, and accessible to all learners. 

My Mixed Emotions\n is a fantastic book to help your students understand how and why we experience certain feelings. 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 that can easily link to lines of inquiry concerned with exploring systems within the human body. \n\nAnother 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.  \n\nMy Mixed Emotions\n \nis packed with amazing ideas and activities for your classroom and is suitable for all ages, grades, 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.

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.\nThe three books I am focusing on for \nWhere we are in place and time\n 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. 

Where We Are in Place and Time

A favorite in classrooms, libraries, and homes, Children Just Like Me is a comprehensive view of international cultures, exploring diverse backgrounds from Argentina to New Zealand to China to Israel. Children will learn about their peers around the world through engaging photographs and understandable text laid out in DK's distinctive style. Highlighting over 30 countries, Children Just Like Me profiles over 40 children and their daily lives. From rural farms to busy cities to riverboats, this celebration of children around the world shows the many ways children are different and the many ways they are the same, no matter where they live. Meet Bolat, an eight-year-old from Kazakhstan who likes to cycle, play with his pet dogs, and play the dromba; Joaquin from New Jersey who enjoys reading and spending time with his family, and whose favorite food is bacon; or Yaroslav from Moscow who likes to make robots. Daily routines, stories of friends and family, and dreams for the future are spoken directly from the children themselves, making the content appropriate and interesting to draw in young readers. To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of this special project, all-new photography, maps, and facts give unique insight to children's lives in our world today showing their homes, food, outfits, schools, families, and hobbies. A passport to a celebratory journey around the world, Children Just Like Me is perfect for children who are curious about the children of the world and their stories.

Children Just Like Me

Children Just Like Me\n is an amazing book, packed with facts and visual overviews for students. This is a resource that could be shared across grades and even transdisciplinary themes, as it also includes some great information for those classes who may explore cultures during their \nWho we are\n unit. This book features lovely photographs of children’s daily lives from around the world. It’s a great resource for students researching a variety of cultures, homes, and environments. You could have learners research what life is like for children in two different places, comparing and contrasting what they find with their own experiences. It can also be used as inspiration for how to present work, providing an excellent opportunity to practice another one of the ATL skills. For example, students could use the double pages, which feature facts and information about the children’s daily lives, as inspiration for creating their own overview of their lives and backgrounds. \n\n

School Days Around the World\n is a great title for young readers who may be comparing different global locations, in particular how life differs around the globe. Students can learn more about how different school buildings can look, how kids travel to school, what their school day is like, and what they enjoy doing throughout the day. \n\n\nThis title could be a great starting point for classes comparing general life in different locations throughout the world and how this relates to their own life. Why not ask your class to use this information to create a welcome pack for any future students joining their school? \nSchool Days Around the World\n may also be suitable within the transdisciplinary theme \nWho we are.\n 

Learn about incredible world history in this first-ever history atlas for children ages 7-9. Young history buffs will love this time-traveling adventure! This beautiful history atlas helps children learn about world history, all the way from the first humans leaving Africa right up to how the world looks now, with a modern world map. Journey around the world as you learn its history, with maps showing everything from the awe-inspiring Great Wall of China to the when and how of the Civil War. This amazing illustrated atlas brings history to life. It is packed with more than 40 colorful historical maps and fascinating nuggets of information about our past. Children are shown how to read a map and how to use a key, compass, and scale. Each map is bursting with information, such as how big the Roman Empire was, how explorers made incredible journeys around the world, and when humans first traveled into space. This charming and informative history atlas is a key addition to every child's library.

 Children's Illustrated History Atlas

 The Children’s Illustrated History Atlas \nis 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 \nHistory Atlas \ncould be used across multiple grades 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 \nHistory Atlas\n an engaging activity.\n\n

Read more about incorporating DK books into the IB themes  \n‘How we express ourselves and How the world works’\n and\n ‘How we organize ourselves and Sharing the planet,”\n or head back to \nthe introductory article\n for 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

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, \nWho we are\n and \nWhere we are in place and time\n. 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 \nexplore the site\n to find even more suitable titles to support your inquiries, and to \naccess free guides\n to using DK collections in your classrooms, complete with suggested lesson ideas and worksheets. You can also explore the \nDK IB Collection of books for the PYP.\n

Using DK resources in the IB PYP: Who We Are and Where We Are in Place and Time 

US header

Articles

Sign up to a FREE DK Learning account to access recommended books, teaching resources, and more

Subscribe to the FREE DK Learning newsletter and be the first to know of important updates

Create a free account

Dorling Kindersley Limited. Registered Number GB 01177822, England. Registered Office: 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA. `Dorling Kindersley`, `DK`, `Eyewitness` and the open book logo are trade marks of Dorling Kindersley Limited.

US footer

You need a DK Learning account to access this, sign up now for free.