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Planning an IB PYP Who We Are Inquiry: What Concepts Live Here?
Is human body science still an IB PYPĀ Who We AreĀ unit under the IB's refreshed transdisciplinary themes and how does a kindergarten community project fit under the very same theme as a grade 5 unit on beliefs and values?
Short answer: all of it fits, and it isn't a coincidence. Who We Are's updated descriptor names three strands: physical, emotional, social and spiritual health and well-being; relationships and belonging; and learning and growingĀ all pointing back to one idea: identity. Body systems, community, belief .... they're three doors into the same room. (Full adoption of the refreshed descriptors runs through September 2027, so if your school hasn't formally moved over, it's worth a quick check with your PYP coordinator.)
But that raises the real question underneath all of this: if the content is completely different from one Who We Are unit to the next, what actually makes it recognisably the same theme?
Not the content. The concepts.
Content Is the Vehicle, Not the Desti...
Planning in the IB PYP How the World Works: What Concepts Live Here?
Every Unit of Inquiry starts somewhere. For most of us, it starts with content ā€” forces, motion, machines, energy, structures, technology. We picture the activities first, then go hunting for resources, then try to squeeze it all into the planner.
Somewhere in that process, the inquiry itself can get lost.
I want to suggest a different starting point: start with the concepts. If inquiry is the journey, concepts are what propel it forwardĀ and that brings us to the single most useful question you can ask when planning a Unit of Inquiry:
What concepts live here?
Not just the specified concepts already sitting in the planner. What concepts actually live in this theme? That one question can change the way you plan every unit you teachĀ and it's the starting point for a simple, repeatable 7-step pathway I use for concept-based planning, which I'll walk through below using a How the World Works unit on forces, motion and innovation as the example.
Planning the Inquiry, Not Perfecting the...
Planning Your First Unit of Inquiry: Where to Start in the IB PYP
Back to school in your IB PYP class is well and truly over. The settling-in weeks are behind you. Routines are running, names are sticking, the classroom finally feels like yours. And now the real planning pressure lands: your first proper unit of inquiry of the year.
It's a strange kind of hard. You've done this before, plenty of times. But not with this group, not yet knowing what makes them curious, what derails them, what they'll push back on. There's no "last year's version" of this unit to lean on, because last year's version was built for different children and the reflections came from those children.Ā
That's why the first unit of the year is so often the one that eats the most planning time, for the least confidence in the result.
Why the First Unit Is the Hardest One to Plan
A few reasons this one is different from every unit that follows it:
- You're choosing concepts for a class you're still getting to know; there's no muscle memory with this group yet.
- There's real p ...
