By Guest

• June 23, 2011
Juliet Mickelburgh The popular topic. These are ideas only: ANY CURRICULUM LINKS DO NOT RELATE TO THE CURRENT (2012) EYFS REQUIREMENTS

'Ourselves' is a topic children invariably find absorbing! It offers opportunities to explore diverse aspects of life experiences and can comfortably include a mini-topic on the Senses if you don't want to focus on these too closely. Aspects of and activities from the 'Growing' topic can be incorporated easily into this topic. Children seem to enjoy sharing their own experiences, feelings and opinions so this can be a good way of introducing a new group to each other.

Overview

This Topic includes a book list, mind map and suggested activities to cover the six areas of learning. The mindmap bullet points are included as a separate document for ease of reference, but also listed in the 'Ideas and Suggestions' sections below. Most of the early years publications available have covered this topic, often more than once, so don't forget to check your own resources! There are usually book recommendations and other resource suggestions in the topic forum as well, so make sure you have a browse through the discussions to see if there is anything else of interest.

Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

Communication, language and literacy (CLL)

Knowledge and understanding of the world (KUW)

Mathematical Development (MD)

Physical Development (PD)

Creative Development (CD)

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

Ideas and Suggestions

• Families
• Feelings – what makes me happy/sad
• Baby pictures, to adult ‘who is it?’
• People are different
• Friends
• Pets
• Special occasions
• Circle games – e.g. descriptive ‘who is it?’ games
• Sharing favourite toys
• Family tree – simple versions
• Clothes for different purposes/occasions
• Recycling to care for the environment
• ‘I can do’ books to promote self-esteem
• Organise an event such as Sports Day together (see Seasons topic)
• Team games

Activities

Family Trees/forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Good Mood Walks /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

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Communication, language and literacy (CLL)

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Funnybones books
• All About Me books, made by children
• Books about the body
• Life experience books
• Letter writing (address etc)
• ‘Who is it?’ – identifying by voice only
• Favourite story days
• Make ‘Body’ books
• Karaoke machine
• Show and tell
• Make signs, tickets, etc to support role play activities
• Find out about meanings of different names
• Make invitations etc for a sports day, record results
• What sounds start our names?

Activities

Our Names /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Show and Tell /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

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Knowledge and understanding of the world (KUW)

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Shadows
• Maps of home, route to setting
• Explore our senses
• Feelie bags/boxes
• Smelly bottles
• Special events/festivals
• X-ray pictures
• Body computer games
• Grow items to eat
• Similarities and differences in the group
• Using timers of different types (sports day links)

Activities

Moving Models /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Shadow Play /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Display example

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Mathematical Development (MD)

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Height charts
• Favourite things – survey group and make graph of results
• Shopping games
• Telephone numbers
• Baking activities
• Birthday charts
• Make numberplates for bikes/cars etc
• Order children by height
• Make numbers and event sheets for sports day
• Sort children by various criteria

Activites

Body Shapes /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

My Group /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

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Physical Development (PD)

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Body maps – labelling the parts
• Healthy eating
• Exercise and how it affects the body
• Keeping safe
• Keeping healthy
• Sun safety
• Hygiene
• Fiddly fastenings
• Obstacle courses
• Hopscotch
• Practise simple tasks such as throwing, catching etc for a sports day
• How we grow and change
• Making snack together

Activites

Fiddly Fastenings /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Obstacle Course /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

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Creative Development (CD)

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Self portraits (using mirrors)
• Hand/foot printing
• Drawing around their bodies to decorate
• Role play of life situations
• Group murals
• Messy play – dough, cornflour, clay etc
• Dance sessions, sometimes using props
• Music sessions to reflect feelings
• Role play e.g Optician, Dentist, Doctor, Hospital, Baby clinic
• Making participants medals for sports day
• Mixing colours to represent different skin tones
• Clay hand prints
• Body sounds and rhythms

Activites

Body Sounds /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

Hand Prints /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif

'Ourselves' Forum

Accompanying this article we have a dedicated Forum area - please feel free to join in and contribute to discussions and suggestions on the topic. Find the 'Ourselves' forum here

Other Resources

• A booklist is available here
• 'mindmap' document in MS Word format - click here