Independence

News and Updates

Parent Collaboration Committee: MVS Family Social on February 18th from 9:00 -12:00 am at the Stowe Elementary School Gym. We will have bounce houses and an activity area for the younger children. You bring your water bottles and snacks. You are welcome to donate $5 - $10 to support MVS projects. 

Dad's Night Out!! Thursday, February 16th at 6:30 pm at Doc Ponds. I've heard it is a good time, don't miss it.

Independence

Here at Mountain Village School, we value independence. We encourage self-reliance in all of our children. We feel that self-reliance is important because it allows children feel competent, in control, and proud of themselves. We truly believe in encouraging interdependence, not dependence. We often will encourage children to ask one another for help with a button in the back of their painting smock or if they've lost something asking a peer to help them search the cubbies. At all times we are considering how to make a child feel that they have the skills, power, and know-how to make things happen. We give support, guidance, and helpful hints so that children can succeed but ultimately we want the power to be in the child's hands. You will often hear teachers saying "I know you are capable. You might need to try again but I believe in you.", it is common to hear the children saying that to one another too!

We also find that by encouraging and supporting self-help tasks routines and transitions become less difficult and daunting for children. It can be intimidating to some to get dressed for a cold wet day. There are a lot of layers to be stuffed, zipped, and organized in order to be comfortable while playing outdoors. By practicing the small skills of velcro, zipping, and even finding one own's belongings these tasks become more manageable for the child. When children know they can ask a peer for support or a teacher for guidance when they are stuck, they are more likely to stay calm and keeping trying to figure out the task at hand. It definitely takes more effort from us as caregivers to continue to insist, guide, and hold off from helping too much to get children to a level of independence but it well worth it. At times I find myself watching as children struggle with a zipper, knowing all well that if they just pulled it down a bit more it would work. It's hard to hold back from fixing and it doing it for the child, however when I wait and encourage them to try again, they learn what the problem was and how it fix it. We encourage our preschool children to open their own containers at lunch. Not only is this a time for them to be independent but it also is a great opportunity for fine motor skill development. Some containers can be tough but with a little help from a peer the children are more than capable. Fine motor skills are incredibly important, and we see the strength they gain in other tasks such as holding a pencil or pair of scissors. Challenges are a good thing, that's how we learn. As teachers, we are constantly trying to find new ways of challenging the children. From learning new letters to accomplishing a skill, all learning happens in new and challenging situations.

There are also times in play that we try to step back and watch. From our youngest infants trying to roll over to our older children arguing over a stick, we must allow the children the space and time to figure things out on their own. If we run to rescue or solve the problem what are we allowing the child to learn or gain from the situation? Negotiation tactics between two children during play are very real and very important skills that will be with them for the rest of their lives. An infant learning to crawl or walk must go through the necessary steps of moving her body to feel her own weight along with the muscles required for those movements. It isn't up to us to solve these problems or teach these skills. We must provide the environment, support the children in feeling capable, and then sit back and watch as they grow and develop right in front of us.

This video demonstrates the power of allowing children the time and space they need to develop gross motor skills at the own pace. 

Classroom Updates

Infant I: This week we really enjoyed getting out into the soft snow. It is a little more forgiving on our tumbles but also proved to be a bit "slippery" at times. Sled rides were a big hit, and we even did some exploring of the steeper terrain in the back playground. That is pretty challenging for us, but it can be fun in small doses. There's also been a lot of physical activity inside, as some of us have discovered the joys of playing chase together (mostly a crawling version). Finally, our youngest infants have settled into a comfortable daily rhythm and have also come to appreciate quiet moments in small groups. They can become very engaged in simply looking at each other.

Infant II: The children were very excited to greet our new classroom pets: Honk Hink (the bigger yellow/orange fish) and cock-a-doodle-doo (the smaller spotted fish). Previously we had rubber ducks floating in our tank, so seeing the fish swim about (especially during feeding time) has been exciting. We are working on gentle hands and quiet voices near the tank to help make our friends feel comfortable and safe in their new home. We have been spending a lot of time working with puzzles individually, allowing for children to really work on the puzzle as a whole. We've had conversations about allowing our peers to have space to work with a puzzle on their own. At nap time we have been working hard with our older children to take more independence when putting themselves to sleep and self-soothing. Lastly, listening to Raffi has been a favorite activity among most of the children. Requesting songs is very common now, and the children love singing and dancing along. Some favorites include Oats and Beans and Barley Grow and Baby Beluga. 

Toddlers: We had a busy and energetic week in our classroom. We are working hard on following our classroom rules: hands to ourselves, walking feet, put our things away, and quiet voices. This week we have enjoyed plenty of time outside, especially on Wednesday in the soft, fluffy snow. The children really enjoyed using small shovels to scoop of the light snow and move it from place to place. We also worked with textures this week. We explored feathers in our sensory table. We work on putting the feathers through cylindrical tubes, it was a great fine motor challenge for us! 

Preschool I: While our interest in ice seems to be waning a little, the children are getting REALLY interested in exploring sound. Shannon brought in a tape recorder to capture and document conversations in the classroom. What ended up happening is a beautiful opportunity to record children making sounds and then letting the children listen. We've recorded words, songs, poems, and sounds of nature. We listened to tapping woodpeckers and splashing water. The children love listening to each other's voices on the tape. Listening is a huge incentive for them to work on finding space, keeping hands to one's self, and staying still. Shannon is working on creating a "listening station" for our classroom, stay tuned. 

Preschool II: This week we spent a considerable amount of time with water in the sensory table, and working with our new playdough. We worked on creating letters out of playdough, it is very difficult! We are continuing our letter work. We have gotten very good at slowing down, listening to the sounds of the different letters, and identifying them. Almost all of the children can now identify the entire alphabet. Differentiating between upper case and lower case letters is something we are working on together as well.  Outside we spent time at Campfire Forest. We discussed differences between live and dead trees and worked hard together to create a very big camp fire. We are loving all of the snow and have created new games outside, chasing balls and sliding down the hill on our bellies. 

PreK:  Our ice sculptures continue and the children added new tools to the area. They decided gloves were necessary for protecting their hands and then got goggles and hard hats too! Our ice cream shop is thriving. We have new ice cream cones and scoops of very realistic ice cream. We've also added paper strips for money, clipboards for taking orders, and cleaning tools for keeping the area neat after closing time. Letter G has led up to Groundhog Day and serious discussions and investigations with shadows. Flashlights have helped us explore this topic in the classroom, we even used them with our globe to explore the Earth's shadow and how it makes our days and nights. We've been using small tealights in our block area to make lighthouses and other beautiful and interesting constructions. We started a book to record our questions of the day responses and will begin to explore different types of graphs to display our results.