Verita Insights Magazine VIS magazine final | Page 13

HIGHLIGHTS
PROGRESS IN
EARLY YEARS
Exploring the IEYC units in
Reception B
Child: " I wonder what the Troll is going to
do next?"
This is what one of our 5 years old students
likes to ask almost every time we start a new
IEYC unit. Why? Well, the Troll is his friend,
he is 4 years old, lives under a bridge - that
is why he is mean to the goats (yes, he is the
Troll from "The 3 billy goats gruff" which we
read during our IEYC unit "Once upon a
time") and he has learnt how to be kind and
respectful after he met some very
interesting friends such as The Three Little
Pigs, Rapunzel and the Gingerbread man.
They all told him their story and offered him
lots of help and guidance together with
their 5 years old friends from Reception.
They decided to build him a house and,
thus, during our "Loose parts unit", we
explored lots of materials and means of
working with them in order to build the
most beautiful and fun house, which we
decided would borrow lots of elements from
our own houses that we explored during the
"This is me" unit at the beginning of the
school year.
This is just a little sneak-peek at how we
teach and connect the IEYC units in
Reception. I have been teaching the IEYC
units for two years and, as a teacher, I was
immediately drawn to its structure and the
creative, inclusive learning opportunities.
The complexity and diversity of the activities
allowed me to explore children's creativity
and imagination because, as we know, at
this stage in their development, children
start exploring the world and integrating
different situations from their everyday life
into their play and are masters at creating
complex narratives that would incorporate
all kinds of characters.
Thus, being supported by the exciting themes of the
units, it was simple for us: we just had to create a story, in
which a character needed help and was asking it from a
wonderful team made out of 5-year-olds who, naturally
equipped with the magical power of imagination, were
ready to go on the journey with him. 
"The complexity and diversity of the activities
allowed me to explore children's creativity and
imagination because, as we know, at this stage in
their development, children start exploring the
world and integrating different situations from
their everyday life into their play and are masters
at creating complex narratives that would
incorporate all kinds of characters."
Being able to connect the dots of their own learning
process, helped the children develop their enquiry skills as
the passage from one unit to the other was designed to feel
just like a natural development of the story. And by the end
of the process, having children ask us `what is going to
happen next?` was the assessment result that mattered
the most: it was a direct and clear evidence of the learning
process and excitement for learning that, together, we have
managed to create at this critical developmental stage
where the approach to the learning process is shaped and
carried by students throughout their academic lives.
Article by Roxana Din
Teacher,  Reception B
VERITA INSIGHTS  |  13