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Look for the helpers


This past week marked the 50th anniversary of the television show Mister Roger's Neighborhood, which aired for the first time on February 19, 1968. Though the show ended in 2001 and Fred Rogers, its star and creator, passed away in 2003, there is still much to learn from his legacy. As described in this NPR article, Rogers' show started airing just after the beginning of the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive and ended just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The American public grew to love him throughout that period of turbulent history; his presence on television and in person offered calm reassurance and a simple spirit of goodness. He used an approach of gentle honesty to talk with children about current events, recognizing them as full-fledged members of our community with the right to understand what is happening and why, but never losing his slow, soft manner of speech or his genuine desire to help, provide comfort, and do good. A popular quote of his that has been circulated after several recent national tragedies: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Fred Rogers was ultimately a kind and gentle man. How can we raise more boys like him? This 2017 New York Times article summarized research studies that have found differences between how we talk to boys and how we talk to girls as early as infancy. Many of the differences boil down to our responses to their emotions; with girls we are more likely to use emotional words and acknowledge how they feel, while with boys we more frequently use directives and imply that emotions should be suppressed. By recognizing these differences, perhaps we can start to change them. See Shannon E-F's discussion of "strong words" in the Preschool I classroom update below. Maybe we can offer boys a new definition of emotional strength that involves acknowledging, working through, and regulating their response to emotions rather than simply suppressing them. A simple idea to keep in mind is that there are no good or bad emotions, but children often need adult support to understand good and bad ways of responding to them.

I will end with another quote from Mister Rogers: "Every human being has value. This is the basis of all healthy relationships. Through living each day as it is given to me, I've learned that. It cannot be 'taught' but it can be 'caught' from those who live their lives right along with us. What a privilege to be able to look for the good in our neighbor!"

Thanks for reading,
Megan

News and Reminders
The annual Early Childhood Day at the Vermont State Legislature sponsored by Let's Grow Kids is coming up on Wednesday, March 14th! This is the best opportunity every year for parents, teachers, and early childhood advocates to speak with legislators about why early experiences matter and why we need more public support. In addition to the all-day agenda of policy discussions, State House tours, and remarks from the governor, there will also be a rally on the State House steps at 1pm. We would love to send our bus full of parents, teachers, and children to the rally; please reach out to Sarah or Megan if you'd be interested in attending.

Classroom Updates
Infant I
This week we've all been settling into new routines as we welcomed a new child and shifted some schedules around. All of the children have proven to be very adaptable and overall the room has felt calm and collected. Some of our youngest infants enjoyed soaking up the sunshine on Wednesday and everyone loved the new puddles and mud. There has been lots of interest in scarves and pull toys in the room and we've also been singing quite a lot–"Itsy Bitsy Spider" has been most popular.







Infant II
We have had a wonderful short week. The children seemed happy and in good spirits to be back at school. They enjoyed exploring with different materials in the water, playing with pipe cleaners, and using cookie cutters with play dough that the older children made for us (thank you!). Books have been a big interest this week, both reading them with teachers and looking through them independently. Everyone loved the warm weather on Wednesday and playing in the mud. Some liked sitting in it while eating it, digging and scooping with containers, and using their hands to move it around, while others chose to use their finger or a stick to poke at it. Our focus for the next few weeks will be to learn more interactive songs and sing throughout the day.


Toddlers
We had a great week. We really enjoyed the milder temperatures in the beginning of the week and we had a ball playing in glorious mud on Wednesday morning. We used tiny plastic bowls to scoop drippy, droppy mud into larger medium-sized containers. We scooped, dug and poured mud to our hearts' content; it was wonderful! We thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather and had a great time without mittens, hats and coats in the gorgeous sun! We were equally as happy Thursday morning with the return of our Vermont weather. We discovered ice and hard mud and enjoyed shoveling and "skating" again on the ice. We are becoming experts on navigating the ice. This week we also enjoyed learning a new song, "Farmer in the Dell," and we especially liked incorporating our names into the lyrics. We also welcomed N to our classroom and he is settling in beautifully.


Preschool I
Even though we only had four days of school this week, they were stuffed full of excitement! We welcomed O from the Toddler classroom, celebrated two more third birthdays, and wished our friend A the best as he continues his journey at MVS in PreK. We've focused a lot on music and movement as we encourage children to think of different ways to move their bodies for dancing. Singing and dancing in small groups is a great way to introduce taking turns, listening to each other's ideas, and trying them out! It is also a fun and healthy way to work on balance, building physical strength and coordination, and expending that seemingly endless energy.
As we have welcomed some younger children into the classroom, we have all been working hard to remember how to use what Team Shannon calls "strong words." We had a parent ask for some clarification on strong words, and we thought it would great to share the idea on the blog. "Strong words" are clear, specific, and effective words for communicating needs and wants, in a calm, strong voice. For example, if an argument breaks out over a toy and it escalates into screaming, "No!!! I don't like that!!!" a teacher will coach both children through calming down (deep breaths, counting to five), and rephrasing their needs in "strong words." In this situation, it may be, "I'm not done with this yet. You may have it when I'm done. I don't like it when you push me." It may seem like a lot, but even our youngest students are very capable at using strong words with coaching! An important note: sometimes children are so upset that they are crying or shouting at their peers. To bring them back to a place where they can communicate, it is crucial to validate their frustration by saying, "I hear you're upset. You are frustrated because you want that toy and you can't have it yet. If you need to be sad, that's okay. Let's walk away until your body is calm. If you want to talk about it now, let's take a deep breath and count to five." Offering them a choice in how they want to regulate their emotions includes them in this process of learning self-regulation, validates and names their feelings, and gives control of the situation back to the child. As the children learn how to negotiate their play through their own strong words, it frees them to engage in deeper play with their peers, and therefore creates more opportunities for more learning. Thanks for reading!






Preschool II
This week in PS2: The germ shield! While working with children for over 16 years, hand washing has always been a requirement; before eating, before and after joining the sensory table, after using tissues, apon arrival, and often it was just part of the daily routines. But for PS2 this week the idea of clean hands as a defensive shield that protects us--the super students-- from microscopic super bugs became more then a routuine as the students connected with the imagery of the shield. We found the students asking great questions like, "What happens if our shields break?" We avoided breaking down our shields by not putting our hands near our eyes, nose, or mouth. Great work Super Students! This week all of the upstairs classrooms worked on clapping and singing while listening to the words of different songs. PS2 continued the singing of our Friday book, All The World. We counted words and talked about how all words have syllables. We started with counting all the words with one syllables and then moved on to listening for words with more than one syllable. We continued our syllable exploration by talking about all of our names and how many syllables they each have. We all seemed to have a deeper focus on the words of the song after this exercise. See you Monday!











PreK
The highlight this week in PreK was most certainly our unseasonably warm Wednesday! We had so much fun enjoying the sun, the warm breezes and the mud! It was interesting to compare the weather and its effects on our playground from one day to the next. In the classroom we continue to work on imagining, creating, and improving, and many of our children have embraced the idea of putting these ideas on paper. All of the classrooms engaged in some extra music and movement activities this week and PreK was no exception. We learned some songs the younger children were working on so we could sing together on the playground. We also added a few new songs to our circle time and practiced aligning movements to the music. Ram Sam Sam and Sticky Bubble Gum were two favorites. We used Hap Palmer's versions. Look him up and sing along!











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