Ms. Lydia Galea Portelli and Ms. Yasmin Alvi
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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This year in Early Years (EY) we introduced and implemented the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC). Integrated in the units we have taught, are the IEYC Personal Goals. These are essential for our students to further develop their social and emotional skills, which is a key component of our curriculum.
In the EY at Verdala, we encourage and help our students to develop skills and qualities that will enable them to become successful in the future. It is important that we provide opportunities within our classrooms for our little ones to experience, further develop and reflect on the personal goals.
The question we had was how do we introduce these “big” words so our students would understand the personal goals. After brainstorming with the EY team we decided the best way is to use animals that best represent each goal through their actions and traits. The 8 IEYC Personal Goals and animals are as follows:
Chameleon - Adaptability - Ready to change
Bee - Communication - Use kind words to talk, take turns and share
Ant - Cooperation - Learn as a team, work together, team work
Fox - Enquiry - Find out more, curiosity
Dog - Morality - Make responsible choices
Woodpecker - Resilience - Keep trying. Always do your best!
Skunk - Respect - Think about others and space
Crow - Thoughtfulness - Try new ideas
We started with the IEYC Personal Goal of Communication, the Bee, to show how well the bees communicate to work together. One of the ways we started our lesson was we had a class discussion what does it look like and sound like when we communicate with our friends. The students were asked “Why communication is important?” how do we communicate and in what ways can we talk. As this idea tied in well at the beginning of the year following class rules and part of the IEYC unit on This Is Me! the students were able to make the connection of using kind words, ‘caring hearts’ and good actions. The children also discovered how they can communicate using their bodies to talk and communicate with others, for example nodding their heads, showing their hand in front to say stop.
Learning IEYC Personal Goals in PreK2