How We Express Ourselves

Transdisciplinary Theme

'How we express ourselves' 

Central Idea

People express themselves through stories

As an International Baccalaureate world school, authorised to teach the Primary Year’s Programme, we explore six transdisciplinary themes each year. 

This unit of inquiry encourages the children to explore stories and story writing. We are aiming to promote a sense of curiosity about stories, books and writing.

We will explore different genres of stories, making connections between the children’s own personal experiences and the various types of stories they read. The children will also explore the elements of a story. 

We encourage our children to think and extend their ideas about stories around the world. They will also be challenged to form opinions about specific stories and characters and share their perspectives with their classmates.

Concepts

• form
• perspective
• causation

Lines of Inquiry

• The way stories are told
• The reason people write stories
• The way we explore culture, beliefs and values through stories 

Action

We continue to encourage our children’s independent action inspired by our units of inquiry. It may be independently finding items that help them explore stories and investigating the variety of books on their bookshelf. It also could be in the form of student-initiated drawings/posters/research or bringing in items related to the unit for Show and Tell on Friday afternoons. 

We celebrate our children’s ACTION every day in our classrooms. Please celebrate any action you see occurring in your home.

For our last unit of inquiry ‘Journeys evolve over time’, it was great that many students discussed the unit with their families and brought artefacts in related to the unit to share with the class. Students brought in models of different forms of transport, pictures and artefacts from holidays they had been on and posters and drawings they had done at home. 

Approaches To Learning

• Communication: reading, writing, viewing and presenting
• Social: cooperative group work
• Thinking: analysing and evaluating issues and ideas related to stories. Sharing and comparing a variety of perspectives

PYP Learner Profile Focus

April  - Principled

May  - Open-minded

June - Balanced

Mrs Jenna Horler, Mrs Kristy Smith, Mrs Melinda Docker, Mrs Melissa Ball and Mrs Melissa Werry.